Cherry Visits Atlantis: The Lost Empire
by PerkyGoth14
Summary: Atticus, Cherry, Mo, Lionel, Harvey, and Sabrina embark on a brand new adventure together as they visit the 1910's where they meet a new friend who is a young man by the name of Milo Thatch who believes in a fantastical world known as Atlantis. While he dreams of visiting the place, his dream slowly comes true with the help of his new friends as they explore together and a lot more
1. Chapter 1

Our story begins in the year of 1914 as a certain adventure group soon appeared, wearing clothes that fit the time period with Drell with them and Hilda had come along, demanding to come with him just to keep him out of trouble, and Sabrina was even there with Harvey. They soon appeared in the middle of the ground after traveling through a time portal.

"Can't we just take a bus?" Cherry groaned a bit.

"Sorry about that, dear," Hilda said, helping Cherry up to her feet. "This is going to be an interesting adventure."

"What is this place?" Patch asked as he stretched on all fours.

"We're in Washington DC, in the year 1914." Drell informed.

"Wonder who we're gonna meet here, during this point in time?" Lionel pondered.

"I guess you'll find out." Drell said, being cryptic again.

"Thanks." Cherry rolled her eyes.

"Oh, alright," Drell replied. "It's time you guys heard the truth about Atlantis."

"It's a myth though." Harvey said, though he was a mortal so he didn't know any better.

"In our line of work, myths are usually proven to be anything BUT," Lionel replied. "You're new to this mystical stuff. You'll learn."

"Lionel is right, Heath." Drell replied.

"My name is Harvey." The mortal complained.

"I knew that, Hammond," Drell said. "Now, according to my records, inside is a young man named Milo Thatch."

"And he's trying to prove that Atlantis actually exists." added Hilda.

"Interesting..." Sabrina replied. "Sounds like someone Aunt Zelda would hang around with."

"Also, this is the early 20th century," Drell reminded them. "So no phones, laptops, MP3 players, or tablets."

"Luckily I've learned to adapt with that drawback from certain other adventures such as that time in Narnia." Cherry replied.

"Got it." Lionel added.

"No TV and no WiFi..." Harvey commented. "So it'll be like visiting my grandparents during the summer."

Sabrina giggled a little from that as they walked off together, going towards a building as they passed by the various people who walked by or rode along on the road, not going near the building as an important lecture was going on.

"Wonder where this Thatch guy could be...?" Lionel commented.

"Shouldn't he be in a laboratory? A classroom? Or maybe a-" Atticus began to suggest.

"Boiler room." Drell said.

"Boiler room?" The others asked.

"Heh... He kinda has a reputation around here." Drell chuckled slyly.

"And by that you mean he's the repairman for the boiler room..." Harvey replied. "Well...you were right, guys: I _DIDN'T_ expect that."

* * *

They soon came inside, passing by people who were examining the museum which had dinosaur skeletons.

"Hey. Hi. Hello. Pardon me. Excuse me." Cherry muttered as she passed through the crowd with her friends.

"Hiya. How's the family? What's new, pussycat? Glad to meet'cha." Lionel murmured as he followed behind.

The group soon made it into the hallway with Drell and Hilda.

"Lots of people here today." Mo commented.

"You never see that happen in museums anymore." Atticus chuckled.

"Definitely not." noted Mo as they made their way to the Boiler Room.

"Good afternoon, gentlemen," A voice was heard talking, so they followed the voice because then, it would lead them to Milo. "First off, I'd like to thank this board for taking the time to hear my proposal."

"I think it's this way." Mo suggested as she went one way.

"Now, we've all heard of the legend of Atlantis, a continent somewhere in the mid-Atlantic that was home to an advanced civilization possessing technology far beyond our own that, according to our friend Plato here, was suddenly struck by some cataclysmic event that sank it beneath the sea." The voice continued until they soon found a door as the voice got a bit louder which meant that they were going the right way.

They followed the voice at it got closer.

"Now, some of you may ask, why Atlantis? It's just a myth, isn't it? Pure fantasy. Well, that is where you'd be wrong."

"Almost sounds like Atticus." Cherry commented.

"I don't sound like that!" Atticus whined which made her chuckle.

"10,000 years before the Egyptians built the pyramids Atlantis had electricity, advanced medicine even the power of flight," The voice continued before they cracked the door open slightly to peek in to see a young man giving a lecture in front of a chalkboard with some sort of strange language written on the board. "Impossible, you say? Well, no. No, not for them."

"Okay, this actually sounds interesting," Lionel noted.

"Numerous ancient cultures all over the globe agree that Atlantis possessed a power source of some kind...more powerful than steam, than...than coal!" The young man continued. "More powerful than our modern internal combustion engines."

The group soon wandered in to listen a bit as this actually sounded pretty interesting.

"More powerful than our modern internal combustion engines," The young man soon continued, showing pictures to his audience from behind his podium. "Gentlemen, I propose that we find Atlantis find that power source and bring it back to the surface. Now, this is a page from an illuminated text that describes a book called the Shepherd's Journal said to have been a first-hand account of Atlantis and its exact whereabouts. Now, based on a centuries-old translation of a Norse text historians have believed the Journal resides in Ireland. But after comparing the text to the runes on this Viking shield I found that one of the letters had been mistranslated," he then began to erase a letter on the board from an R into a C. "So, by changing this letter and inserting the correct one we find that the Shepherd's Journal the key to Atlantis lies not in Ireland, gentlemen, but in Iceland."

"We're learning. Yaaay." Cherry commented.

Drell and Hilda both elbowed her to shut her up.

"Ow..." Cherry groaned from Drell and Hilda.

"Pause for effect...gentlemen, uh, I'll take your questions now," The young man replied, finishing his rehearsal as his telephone rang. "Uh... Would you gentlemen please excuse me for a moment?" he asked.

"What is that?" Patch whispered.

"That's a phone from this time period," Atticus replied. "I saw it in a mortal history book."

"Cartography and Linguistics, Milo Thatch speaking?" The young man smiled on the phone before he soon got an answer that made him feel unenthusiastic. "Yeah. Uh, just just a second." he then said before going to fix up the boiler as he clicked on the light to show that he didn't have an actual audience for his lecture.

"Wow, that looks a little sad." Harvey commented.

"Well, he _WAS_ practicing," stated Lionel. "Maybe he's gonna get to give his presentation to actual people!"

"Hmm... Fair enough." Harvey then said.

Milo soon came to fix up the boiler a bit before he went back on the phone after he got it to work again. "How's that? Is that better? Yeah. You're welcome." he then hung up.

"I'm sure it'll get better soon." Cherry said.

"Gah!" Milo yelped as he saw her there. "Where'd you come from?"

"We overheard you giving your little speech and decided we'd listen in. Very enlightening." Drell replied casually. "I'm... David Scarborough, and this is my wife Hilda, our niece Sabrina, and her friends, Lionel, Cherry, Monique, Atticus, and Harrison."

"Harvey." replied Harvey.

"Right, Holloway." said Drell, ignoring this.

"Ugh..." Harvey sighed.

"Oh, uh, nice to meet you," Milo replied. "I'm Milo Thatch. I didn't expect to have company down here."

"Sorry to disturb you." Cherry said then.

"Oh, it's fine," replied Milo. "I got a little time before my big presentation, so I figured I could rehearse a little more, and then I can kiss this dump goodbye."

"Good luck." Sabrina gave a small smile.

"Thanks." Milo said before walking off.

"David Scarborough?" Cherry soon asked Drell about his new name.

"Like anyone would believe Drell was a real name..." replied Drell. "Especially not someone from 1914."

Cherry opened her mouth again, but then closed it as that was a good point.

"Would you like to hear more since you're here?" Milo asked.

"Why not?" Atticus smiled. "It sounds interesting."

"All right, come with me then." Milo smiled back.

The group then sat comfortably in front of Milo to hear what he had to say about Atlantis.

"Now, as you can see by th-By this, um, map... Map, uh, th-that... Ahem... That I've drawn," Milo soon said coming to his chalkboard to show the back side with a map, though it was smeared a bit before he saw it erased before looking sheepishly on his shirt as he moved himself into place to explain during his practice lecture. "I plotted the route... That will take myself and a crew to the southern coast of Iceland to retrieve the Journal."

Just then, a cuckoo clock was heard going off four times.

Milo brushed the chalk from his shirt. "Ah. Showtime," he beamed as he picked up his supplies and charts. "Well, this is it. Finally getting out of the dungeon." Milo went over to his desk and glanced at a picture of himself as a child with a man who had glasses and a very bushy mustache.

"Is that you?" Cherry asked him.

"Yes, this is me with my grandfather." Milo smiled emotionally. He reached inside the case behind the photo, and took out his grandfather's explorer hat, which he placed on his head...though it was still a bit too large for his head, as it slid down somewhat.

The others got a bit of a chuckle out of that. A capsule soon came down in a mask.

"You got mail." Cherry then said.

Milo soon took it and opened it to see a letter, reading it aloud rather quickly. "_'Dear Mr. Thatch, this is to inform you that your meeting today has been moved up from 4:30 PM to 3:30 PM'_. What?!"

"A little late for that, huh?" Cherry commented as it was 4:00 now which summoned another letter for Milo.

"_'Dear Mr. Thatch, due to your absence, the board has voted to reject your proposal. Have a nice weekend. -Mr. Harcourt's office'_," Milo read aloud before complaining from his misfortune. "They can't do this to me!"

* * *

Several stuffy businessmen came out of a meeting room.

"I swear, that young Thatch gets crazier every year..." grumbled Mr. Harcourt.

"If I ever hear the word Atlantis again, I'll step in front of a bus!" remarked another.

"Ha-ha-ha! I'll push you!" said a third, and they all laughed and laughed.

"Excuse me?!" Atticus's voice called.

"Mr. Harcourt!" Milo's voice added.

"Good lord, there he is!" A man cried out as Milo was soon rushing towards the businessmen.

The businessmen scattered like cockroaches as Mr. Harcourt soon found that he was now alone...save for Milo.

"Ya gotta listen!" Milo exclaimed, before finding Mr. Harcourt behind a potted plant. "Uh...sir?"

Mr. Harcourt just used his umbrella to knock Milo's papers from his hands, and quickly made a run for it.

"Hey, bozo!" Cherry glared from that.

"Wait! Mr. Harcourt!" Milo cried out, chasing the man all the way outside of the museum into his car, catching him before he could ride away to show his papers to the man. "Sir, I-I have new evidence that-Please, Mr. Harcourt! Stop! Sir, if you... Could you hold... Thank you very much," he then smiled, giving him the papers before showing one to him. "Look at-"

"This museum funds scientific expeditions based on facts, not legends and folklore," Mr. Harcourt told him firmly before smiling innocently. "Besides, we need you here. We depend on you."

"You do?" Milo and the others asked.

"Yes! What with winter coming, that boiler's going to need a lot of attention." Mr. Harcourt replied.

"Boiler?" Milo asked in confusion.

"Onward, Heinz!" Mr. Harcourt then demanded to his driver.

"Geez...what a jerk!" Lionel remarked. "Didn't even give him a chance!"

"Nope." Drell replied.

"Almost reminds me of something..." Sabrina muttered about him from around when they first met before he married Hilda and they became closer as family due to the marriage.

"How so?" asked Lionel curiously.

"Oh, she's just exaggerating." Drell replied.

"I think Brina's talking about how you used to be before I talked Hilda into giving you a second chance and you were kinda crude and scary." Cherry commented to him.

"Ohhhhh..." Lionel replied with a nod. "Alright, I remember that."

Cherry tapped her knuckles together sheepishly from talking Hilda into going back to Drell after Sabrina and Harvey's first Valentine's Day together. She began to feel empathy for more people around that time, so she used it to help out the couple, but ever since she did it, it made her feel sick to her stomach to have helped a person like Drell, but deep down, she felt a little good about it.

"But there... There's a journal!" Milo cried out, showing his map as he tried to run after Mr. Harcourt's car. "It's in Iceland! I'm sure of it this time!"

"Milo...buddy...we're sorry," sighed Harvey. "But I don't think he's willing to listen to your statement."

"I can't give up!" Milo cried out.

"Sometimes you just gotta." Drell shrugged.

"You're going to make a wonderful father!" Cherry exclaimed sarcastically.

"Hey, man, if he doesn't believe you, then ditch that windbag," shrugged Lionel. "There's always a better way."

Atticus soon helped Milo off of the car.

"You don't need him," Mo told Milo. "It'll get better somehow. It always does, even when things look the most bleak."

Milo sighed. "I guess you're right..." he replied as he sadly collected his material and headed back to his apartment.

"Now if we could just show him..." Mo sighed. "But we can't control the future."

"Hey, not even I can do that, unless I'm asked to turn back time like that time that goat ran for mayor." Drell replied.

"What goat?" The group, except for Hilda, asked.

"See?" Hilda smiled innocently.

Lionel chuckled. "I vaguely remember the campaign slogan: Green Pastures, Great Country." he remarked.

Milo sighed as he got himself going, so the others followed him.

"Who cares what that Happy Feet guy thinks?" Cherry said to Milo. "We believe ya, so we might as well stick together."

"Heh... Thanks," Milo replied. "Better than nothing."

The others nodded as it started to get dark as the gray rain of depression was about to come.

"Oh, I miss Ambrose," Hilda frowned. "Would it be too much trouble to bring him with us?"

"He's a baby," Drell replied. "He'll be fine. Besides, Zelda can watch him."

* * *

Soon, the group returned to Milo's apartment.

"Fluffy? I'm home..." Milo sighed as he tried to turn on the lights. "Here, kitty, kitty..."

Suddenly, lightning flashed, illuminating the silhouette of a rather attractive-looking woman who was near the window.

"She was tall, like an Amazon warrior, with hair so blonde it reminded me of Hilda's," Lionel monologued like a 1950's private eye. "I could tell she was nuthin' but trouble...but then again, we're adventurers. Maybe we LIKE trouble..."

"Oh, my..." Cherry muttered from the blonde woman, not sure what to think.

"Milo James Thatch?" The blonde woman greeted as she stepped into the light a bit as she posed, a bit seductively by the window as the lightning flashed her image due to the electrical light being out.

"Who... Who are you?" Milo asked. "How did you get in here?"

"I came down the chimney. Ho, ho, ho," The woman smirked a bit before sitting down by the window mysteriously. "My name is Helga Sinclair. I'm acting on behalf of my employer who has a most intriguing proposition for you. Are you interested?"

"Maybe," Lionel replied. "Who's your employer?"

"If you don't mind us asking, lady." Cherry added to try to sound tough.

"Come with me," Helga smirked. "I shall take you to him."

"...Well, okay," Harvey replied. "Couldn't be that bad."


	2. Chapter 2

They soon came into the car together as Helga began to drive them to her employer's place. Eventually, she rode up to a gate of a manor with lightning flashing and thunder rumbling. Atticus closed his eyes during the storm, humming "A Few of my Favorite Things" to himself to calm himself from the storm since he used to hate storms as a child until Goku's wife helped him get over it.

Soon they were inside, and Helga gave her coat to one of the staff members. "This way, please...and don't drip on the Caravaggio." she advised.

"Uh, sure...whatever THAT is." replied Lionel.

Milo looked around as the others began to follow the blonde woman inside.

"Step lively. Mr. Whitmore does not like to be kept waiting," Helga said, leading Milo and the young group into the elevator before looking to Drell and Hilda. "Sorry, no room."

Drell and Hilda shrugged to each other as they decided to wait, so Drell came up behind Hilda with a smirk and hugged her closely to comfort her since she was worried about their son. Hilda blushed and giggled from that as it made her feel very warm and comfortable.

"You will address him as 'Mr. Whitmore' or 'Sir'," Helga told Milo on the way down the elevator, freshening him up a bit. "You will stand unless asked to be seated. Keep your sentences short and to the point. Are we clear?"

Milo let out a small gulp until the doors opened.

"Um...okay." Lionel replied.

The elevator doors soon opened and they were shown the office of Helga's boss, stumbling out from the elevator.

* * *

"And relax," Helga smirked as she shut the doors as they walked out to meet the man in question. "He doesn't bite... Often."

"Talia, is that you?" Cherry muttered to herself.

"Hm?" Lionel asked curiously and with a slight twinge of jealousy.

"Huh?" Cherry replied.

Lionel shook his head. "...It's nothing," he replied. "Honest."

Cherry glanced to the side then as they went to go meet the man they were asked to visit.

"Grandpa?" Milo muttered as he saw a portrait of two older man, recognizing one of them instantly.

"Finest explorer I ever met," The other old man, shown on the floor as he was stretching, informed before introducing himself before holding his foot out like a hand to be shaken. "Preston Whitmore. Pleasure to meet you, Milo."

"Whoa... That dude is seriously twisted...in a physical way, so to speak." Lionel noted.

"Heh... Hello there, sir." Sabrina greeted nervously.

"Hello there, little lady," Whitmore replied. "Any of you wanna join me in a little yoga?"

"Uh, no, no. Thank you," Milo said to him before asking, "Did you really know my grandfather?"

"Oh, yeah. Met old Thaddeus back in Georgetown," Whitmore replied as he stretched his arms and legs a bit. "Class of '66. We stayed close friends 'til the end of his days. Dragged me along on some disdainful expeditions," he noted. "Thatch was crazy as a fruit bat, he was. Spoke of you often."

"Funny...he never mentioned you." replied Milo awkwardly.

"Oh, he wouldn't," Whitmore said before standing on his head which made his robe drop down a bit, exposing between his legs. "He knew how much I liked my privacy."

"Ah!" The group yelped, turning away, covering their eyes from that.

"I keep a low profile." Whitmore continued, popping his bones a little.

"Mr. Whitmore, should I be wondering why I'm here?" Milo soon asked.

"Look on that table," Whitmore pointed out to a table that had some sort of package on it. "It's for you."

It was labelled "To Milo, with love, Thaddeus Thatch".

"It's...from my grandfather?" Milo asked in disbelief.

"Brought that package to me years ago..." Whitmore continued as he kept on stretching.

"Yeah?" Atticus replied out of interest.

"Sure did," Whitmore nodded. "He brought that package to me years ago. He said if anything were to happen to him, I should give it to Milo when he was ready, whatever that means."

Milo examined the book before looking a bit shocked. "It can't be," he then said as he noticed the symbol on the front cover, recognizing it anywhere. "It's the Shepherd's Journal. Mr. Whitmore, this journal is the key to finding the lost continent of Atlantis!" he then told the older man out of excitement and motivation.

"Atlantis?" Mr. Whitmore laughed. "I wasn't born yesterday, kiddo."

"No, no, no. Look... Look at this," Milo told him as he looked into the book. "Coordinates. Clues. It's all right here."

"Yeah, looks like gibberish to me." Whitmore said, poking his head out from his changing panel.

"That's because it's been written in a dialect that no longer exists." Milo explained.

"So it's useless." Whitmore shrugged.

"No, no, just difficult." Milo replied.

"Well... I know it's not Latin or Egyptian hieroglyphics." Cherry said as she took a small glance at the text.

"I've spent my whole life studying dead languages," replied Milo. "It's not gibberish to me."

"Probably a fake." Mr. Whitmore replied as he got dressed.

"Mr. Whitmore, my grandfather would have known if this were a fake," Milo told him as they soon passed a fish tank that showed a bunch of big fish in it. "I would know. I will stake everything I own, everything that I believe in, that this is the genuine Shepherd's Journal."

"All right, all right," Mr. Whitmore shrugged as he sat down. "So what do you want to do with it?"

"Well, I'll... I'll..." Milo stammered.

"Get funding!" Atticus suggested.

"Uh, yeah! Uh... I mean... The museum-" Milo stammered a bit.

"They didn't believe him." Lionel replied.

"They'll never believe him." Mr. Whitmore added.

"I'll show them!" Milo proclaimed. "I will make them believe."

"Like you did today?" Mr. Whitmore asked.

"Wait... How do you know about that?" Atticus asked him then.

Mr. Whitmore hid a small smirk.

"Forget about them, okay? Never mind!" Milo then glared, feeling frustrated, but wouldn't give up. "I will find Atlantis on my own. I mean, if I have to rent a rowboat!"

"I don't think a rowboat will do the trick..." Lionel winced.

"Well, it's all I got," Milo shrugged. "How else would I get there?"

Mr. Whitmore soon smirked. "Congratulations, Milo. This is exactly wanted to hear."

"It is?" Cherry asked.

"Yes," Mr. Whitmore replied before pushing a button on his desk which brought out some sort of transportation model. "But forget the rowboat, son. We'll travel in style."

"Whoa..." The adventure group said in amazement.

"Now THIS is awesome." Harvey remarked.

"It looks like a spaceship submarine." Cherry commented.

"It's all been arranged, the whole ball of wax." Mr. Whitmore told them.

"Why?" Milo wondered.

"For years your granddad bent my ear with stories about that old book," Mr. Whitmore replied. "I didn't buy it for a minute. So finally I got fed up, and made a bet with the old coot. I said, 'Thatch, if you ever actually find that so-called journal, not only will I finance the expedition, but I'll kiss you full on the mouth'." he then quoted.

"So?" Atticus asked curiously.

"Imagine my embarrassment when he found the darn thing." Mr. Whitmore said, showing them a framed picture of himself with Milo's grandfather who spit the other way while holding onto the journal.

The group snickered a bit from that picture.

"Well, guess we got the ship," noted Sabrina. "All we need now is a crew."

"Yes, a crew, like engineers or geologists." Milo agreed from that.

"Taken care of!" Mr. Whitmore replied. "Got 'em all. The best of the best," he then showed them files of a group, so they came over to take a closer look. "Gaetan Moliere: geology and excavation. The man has a nose for dirt."

"Heh, I think I can see that." Cherry commented.

"Vincenzo Santorini: demolitions," Mr. Whitmore then said. "Busted him out of a Turkish prison."

"Hmm..." Harvey looked wary about that.

"Audrey Ramirez," Mr. Whitmore continued. "Don't let her age fool you. She's forgotten more about engines than you or I will ever know."

"You seem confident in this group." Cherry said to the older man.

"They're the same crew that brought the Journal back." Mr. Whitmore nodded.

"Way cool!" Lionel exclaimed. "This is gonna be legendary!"

"Where was the journal?" Cherry wondered.

"Iceland." Mr. Whitmore said, showing a group photograph.

"I knew it! I knew it!" Milo beamed out of excitement.

"All we need now is an expert in gibberish," Mr. Whitmore told Milo before sitting down by the fireplace. "So it's decision time. You can build on the foundation your grandfather left you or you can go back to your boiler room."

"Say no more," replied Mo. "He's in, and that goes for all of us."

"This is for real..." Milo muttered as he dropped into a chair.

"Now you're all catching on." Mr. Whitmore smirked to the group.

"But what about your job, Milo?" Atticus asked.

"It's done," Mr. Whitmore replied. "He resigned this afternoon."

"And his apartment..." said Hilda. "He'll have to leave a notice."

"Already taken care of." Mr. Whitmore replied, trimming his beard.

"His clothes?" Atticus asked.

"Packed." Mr. Whitmore replied.

"His books?" Sabrina asked.

"In storage." Mr. Whitmore nodded.

"My cat?" Milo asked before hearing a meow behind him, so he pet his pet cat who came over his shoulder. "My gosh."

"Your granddad had a saying," Mr. Whitmore told Milo before quoting. "'Our lives are remembered by the gifts we leave our children'. This journal is his gift to you, Milo. Atlantis is waiting. What do you say?"

"I'm your man, Mr. Whitmore!" Milo beamed, taking the coat as he jumped to the call of adventure. "You will not regret this. Boy, I am so excited, I-I-I-I-I can't even hold it in."

* * *

Later that day, Milo wasn't exactly able to hold in his puke as he upchucked over the railing of the boat they were on later. Luckily, Lionel had packed Cherry's seasick medicine so she didn't get sick.

"Remember to take your pills." Atticus told Cherry.

"I got 'em." Cherry replied.

"Ooh... I'm not sure about this..." Drell said, looking at the boat. "I haven't been on a boat since April 10th, 1912."

"When was that?" asked Sabrina.

"I believe I just said the date..." Drell replied, confused from her question.

"No, I mean like what happened on that day..." Sabrina replied, before it hit her. "Ohhh... Okay, never mind."

"Hello? Hello? Anybody home?" Drell asked, knocking on her head a bit. "Think, Spellman, think!"

"You don't have to do that, I already figured it out!" Sabrina replied, annoyed. "It was the day of the Titanic's maiden voyage!"

"Exactly." Drell replied.

"Well... In that case, would you like to stay behind?" Sabrina asked, rubbing her head.

"Heh... Maybe I should..." Drell said. "I mean, that day was pretty unpredictable... Maybe I should go back home with Zelda, Ambrose, and Salem."

"Hey, if you want." Hilda shrugged.

Cherry snickered a little.

"And WHAT is so funny?" Drell asked.

"You're... Afraid... Of the boat..." Cherry said between snickers.

Drell growled a bit to make her stop, so she smiled sheepishly from that.


	3. Chapter 3

"Carrots... It's always carrots..." Milo groaned. "I don't even EAT carrots..."

"Oh, but carrots are good for your eyes." Atticus smiled.

"That carrot thing is just a myth." Lionel replied.

**_"Attention,"_** A voice announced through an intercom. **_"All hands to the launch bay. To whoever took the 'L' from the Motor Pool sign, ha ha, we are all very amused."_**

Milo looked around with the others following him until he ran into someone who could probably help. "Excuse me? We need to, uh, report in?" he then spoke up.

"Yes, Mr. Thatch?" Helga smirked as she revealed herself to them.

"Aah!" Milo gasped. "Uh, it's you!"

"Blondie, Ah gotta bone ta pick with yew!" said a scruffy-looking bearded man on a covered wagon.

"Oh, boy." Cherry mumbled a bit.

"Hold that thought," Helga told the group before coming toward the man. "What is it this time, Cookie?"

"You done stuffed my wagon full to bustin' with non-essentials," The man complained before emptying a box that had jars inside of it. "Look at all this; cinnamon, oregano, cilantro. What in the cockadoodle is cilantro? And what is this?" he then asked, bringing out a green vegetable.

"That would be lettuce." Helga replied.

"Lettuce? Lettuce?!" Cookie asked like that was unheard of.

"It's a vegetable, Cookie," Helga replied. "The men need the four basic food groups."

"I got your four basic food groups!" Cookie glared, holding up three fingers. "Beans, bacon, whiskey, and lard!"

Just then, an alarm sounded.

Helga shoved the lettuce into Cookie's hands. "Alright, cowboy, pack it up and move it out." she replied.

**_"Attention,_**" A voice informed. **_"All hands to the launch bay. Final loading in progress."_**

"Sounds about enthusiastic as Cherry on Monday morning." Atticus commented.

"Drelly, I won't make you come with us if you don't want to, but you gotta decide," Hilda told her husband. "Are you gonna go home or are you gonna come with us?"

Drell swallowed thickly before pinching his nose a bit. "I'm gonna go with ya if you're going, Hil."

Hilda giggled a little. "I figured. Hope you got your sea legs!" she replied, briefly flashing a mermaid tail. "I know I got mine~!"

"Heh... Later, later..." Drell chuckled himself from the mermaid tail before going with her.

"Well, I guess Drell's not brave enough to face the brimy deep." Cherry smirked.

"Uh, Cherry?" Harvey spoke up, looking right behind her.

"I gotta stop talking like that when HE'S around." Cherry then grumbled in defeat.

"Yeah...you REALLY do." Drell replied, behind Cherry.

Lionel rolled his eyes. "Sooner we get in the water...the better."

They soon got into position with Milo and began a brand new adventure.

"Whoa..." The group said, seeing Mr. Whitmore's transportation model up close as people were loading up into it for the expedition.

"Hey, kiddies," An Italian accent spoke up to Milo and the group, showing a man with a collection of explosives. "If you're lookin' for the pony rides, they're back there."

"Pony rides, he says," Lionel chuckled. "We're with Mr. Thatch."

"Yeah, they're with me," Milo added before picking up something before he realized what it was, so it startled him a bit. "You dropped your dy-dy-dy-dynamite. Heh."

"Erm... What else have you, uh, got in there?" Mo asked. "If you don't mind us asking.

"Oh, eh, gunpowder, nitroglycerin, notepads, fuses, wicks, glue, and paper clips," Vinny replied as he collected the dynamite stick from Milo. "Big ones. You know, just, uh, office supplies."

The group noticeably paled at that.

"Nice..." Cherry grinned nervously as sweat beaded down her face.

"Milo! Where you been? I want you to meet Commander Rourke," Mr. Whitmore smiled, standing beside another man who looked over to the group. "He led the Iceland team that brought the Journal back."

"Milo Thatch. Pleasure to meet the grandson of old Thaddeus," Commander Rourke greeted Milo. "I see you got that journal. Nice pictures, but I prefer a good western myself."

"Impressive, ain't he?" asked Mr. Whitmore.

"Whoa... When you settle a bet, you settle a bet..." Milo smirked.

"Well, your grandfather believed you couldn't put a price on the pursuit of knowledge!" said Mr. Whitmore.

"Now if only the colleges believed that..." Lionel muttered.

Cherry and Atticus nodded to that.

"Well, uh, believe me this'll be small change compared to the value of what we're gonna learn on this trip." Milo smiled to Rourke.

"Yes, this should be enriching for all of us." Rourke smiled back.

**_"Attention, all personnel: launch will commence in 15 minutes."_** said a voice over a loudspeaker.

"Mr. Whitmore." Rourke saluted as he climbed aboard.

"Rourke." Mr. Whitmore saluted back as Milo and the others quickly climbed aboard.

"Well, this is it." Atticus smiled from the excitement.

"Yep," Harvey replied. "Goodbye, DC and hello, adventure."

"Bye, Mr. Whitmore!" Milo called out with a wave to his grandfather's friend.

"Make us proud, boy!" Mr. Whitmore replied.

"We will!" Mo waved to him.

"I liked him," Atticus said. "He was a bit eccentric, but he seemed pretty nice."

"Yeah, I liked him too." Sabrina smiled.

The doors then shut and sealed to begin their new adventure.

* * *

"Rig ship for dive!" The diving officer called out.

"Aye, sir! Rig ship for dive." The Chief of Watch replied.

"Well... I suppose we'd best get acquainted with our fellow crewmates." Lionel suggested.

"Might be a good idea to get social since we'll be spending a lot of time with each other." Atticus nodded in agreement.

"Lieutenant, take her down." Rourke said to Helga.

"Diving officer, submerge the ship." Helga replied.

"Make the depth 150 feet." The diving officer replied.

"Dive, dive!" The intercom called out as they soon splashed into the water to begin an undersea voyage as an alarm blared. "Five degrees down bubble."

"Take us down." The diving officer said.

It took a while, but Milo and the group soon went to get settled in to their new bed chambers.

**_"Attention. Tonight's supper will be baked beans. Musical program to follow,"_** The intercom's voice announced before sounding annoyed. **_"Who wrote this?"_**

"Should be fun..." Sabrina noted. "Dinner and a show."

"Hopefully." Harvey agreed before looking around.

"Hm... Doesn't look too much different from that boot camp I was forced to go to in the Netherworld." Sabrina commented.

"I just know that I claim a bottom bunk." Cherry said before sitting on one bed to get comfortable.

An eye soon came out, looking at her before a little light flashed on, startling her and making her hit her head on the top bunk with a groan. "You have disturbed ze dirt." The voice that came with it told her as someone narrowed his eyes at her.

"Uh... Sorry?" Cherry blinked. "Um... Sorry, guy?"

"This must be Mole," Lionel remarked. "He definitely looks grimy enough..."

"Heh... Sorry then, uh, Mr. Mole." Cherry said sheepishly from where she sat.

"You have disturbed ze dirt!" Mole complained to her before making her get off of the bed before moving the blanket to show patches of dirt with international flags in them. "Dirt from around ze globe, spanning ze centuries! What have you done? England must never merge wiz France!"

"What's it doing in my bed then?" Cherry asked.

"You ask too many questions," Mole huffed before asking her, "Who are you? Who sent you? Speak up!"

"Me? I'm, uh-" Cherry was about to say.

"Bah! I will know soon enough." Mole said, taking her hand.

"Hey, get off of me!" Cherry grunted and cried out. "Atticus, make him stop!"

"Hey, lay off my friend!" Atticus replied, confused at what this strange man was doing.

Cherry soon got free and Milo ended up taking a sample from Mole.

"Whoops... Sorry, Milo." Mo said.

"It's okay, I think..." Milo winced slightly.

"Aha! There you are. Now tell me your story, my little friend," Mole said as he examined the sample he was given. "Parchment fiber from ze Nile circa 500 BC. Lead pencil, #2. Paint flecks of a type used in government buildings. You have a cat, short-haired Persian, two years old, zird in a litter of seven. Zere are all ze microscopic fingerprints of the mapmaker," he then licked the samle a bit before narrowing his eyes at Milo slightly. "And linguist."

"That's just freaky." Cherry commented.

"He seems... VERY thorough when it comes to this sort of thing..." Harvey gulped nervously.

"Zis is an outrage!" Mole cried out as he went to shove Milo away, giving him his stuff. "You must leave at once! Out, out, out, out, out!"

Milo and the others soon ran into another man who came into the room.

"Uh-oh. Sat in the dirt, didn't you?" The man asked.

"Is this just a social rule I don't know about?" Cherry complained slightly.

"Moliere, now what have I told you about playing nice with the other kids?" The man smirked to Mole.

Mole grumbled a bit in annoyance.

"Get back. I've got soap, and I'm not afraid to use it," The man told him, showing a bar of soap to scare Mole off which made him hiss like that was fatal to him. "Back, foul creature! Back to the pit from which you came!"

"Uh, thanks, I think." Cherry said to the man.

"No problem," said the man. "Name's Sweet, Joshua Sweet. Medical officer."

"Milo Thatch," replied Milo. "And these are my friends."

"Milo Thatch... You're my 3:00!" Joshua replied as he reached into his bag and took out a large saw.

Harvey turned pale and keeled over.

"Oh, boy." Milo muttered.

Sabrina tried to wake up her boyfriend in worry.

"Nice, isn't it?" Joshua smiled proudly to his saw. "The catalog says that this little beauty... can saw through a femur in 28 seconds. I'm bettin' I can cut that time in half. Now, stick out your tongue and say 'ahh'." he then brought out a tongue depressor.

"Oh, no, really, I have a-" Milo said before yelping as it was shoved in his mouth while Joshua checked him out.

"So, where you from?" Joshua asked.

Milo uttered out a response.

"Really? I have family up that way. Beautiful country up there," Joshua said while taking care of Milo rather quickly like in a check-up. "Do you do any fishing? Me? I hate fishing. I hate fish. Hate the taste, hate the smell, and hate all them little bones," he then brought out a couple of jars for Milo. "Here, I'm gonna need you to fill these up."

"If one of these jars is for what I think, I'm gonna need everyone to turn around for like...a few minutes. I'll tell you when you can look again." Lionel advised.

The others had to grimace a bit from that.

**_"Will Milo Thatch please report to the bridge?"_** The intercom soon announced.

"Thank you," Milo sighed in relief before smiling sheepishly to Joshua on the way out. "I mean, uh, uh, nice meeting you."

"Uh-huh," Joshua smiled. "Nice meeting you, too."

Milo and the others left, though Sabrina and Lionel had to pull out Harvey's unconscious body as they exited.

"He won't wake up, huh?" Hilda asked.

"Seems like he won't." Mo shook her head.

"Drell, give us one of your shoes, that'll work." Cherry smirked.

"And get my feet wet?" asked Drell. "I think NOT! Use your own."

"But nobody's feet stink as bad as yours," Cherry stated. "The smell will either have him back on his feet...or fry his brain to a cinder."

"I'm not sure if that's an insult or a compliment." Drell rolled his eyes.

"Just gimme a shoe!" Cherry told him.

Drell looked deadpan to the fourth wall before bending down to untie his shoe and shoved it in her face. "Sicko."

Cherry took the shoe before looking like she was about to throw up before moving it over to Harvey's face to help wake him up.

Harvey's face went green as he immediately sprang to his feet...only to go vomit in the bathroom.

"Well, his brain ain't fried," reported Lionel. "He had enough sense for that thing to make him wanna puke."

"Take it back! Take it back!" Cherry begged, holding out the shoe.

Drell soon took his shoe back and put it on, sighing comfortably.

"At least I was right." Cherry said weakly with wet eyes from the stench.

"Tell ya this much," Lionel replied. "I doubt they make Odor-Eaters strong enough to deal with those."

"Hmph." Drell rolled his eyes.

"Oh, Harvey..." Sabrina frowned.

"He'll be okay, dear," Hilda soothed her niece. "This is going to be a great experience though. How many teenagers do you know get to find Atlantis?"

"Yeah, Aunt Hilda, my life felt so normal until this point." Sabrina deadpanned.

Harvey soon stumbled back from the restroom, a little woozy from his unexpected awakening.

"Nice to know you're still alive..." Lionel replied. "You're one of the handful who's gotten a snootful of the Nasal Nukes and lived to tell about it."

"...What?" Harvey asked, feeling more clueless than usual.

"You survived smelling Drell's shoes," Cherry replied. "I made you smell one to wake you up when you passed out from Sweet's saw."

"...Oh... Right," Harvey replied as they made it to the bridge.

* * *

"Welcome to the bridge," announced Rourke. "Everyone, I want you to give Mr. Thatch your undivided attention."

"We're friends of his." Mo commented.

"Um, right." Rourke then said.

"Good afternoon," Milo smiled weakly to the group. "Can everyone hear me okay?"

The audience simply glanced at him and one of them popped her bubblegum.

"Heh, okay, uh, how 'bout some slides?" Milo then suggested nervously, going up to the projector to show one. "Th-The first slide is a depiction of a creature. A creature so frightening, that sailors were said to be driven mad by the mere sight of it." he then said, showing a slide of him in his swimsuit on the beach by accident.

"Uh, Milo? Wrong slide..." Atticus told him, showing what he'd put up by accident.

"Heh... Sorry, that's... Wrong..." Milo nervously told his audience.

"Jeez, I used to take lunch money from guys like this." A girl scoffed.

"Anyway, this, uh... Okay," Milo said, showing a slide with writing on it with a picture. "This is an illustration of the Leviathan: the creature guarding the entrance to Atlantis."

"With something like that, I would have white wine, I think." Vinny spoke up.

"It's a mythical sea serpent," Milo soon explained. "He's described in the Book of Job. Th-The Bible says, 'Out of his mouth go burning lights sparks of fire shoot out', but more likely it's a carving or a sculpture to frighten the superstitious."

Cherry listened closely as she seemed interested in hearing more, along with Atticus like they were in school, but Drell soon seemed to fall asleep during this whole lecture like a slacker.

"So... We find this masterpiece..." said Rourke, as Mole popped up.

"When do we DIG?!" he asked, ecstatic.

"Actually, we don't _have_ to dig," Lionel continued for Milo. "You see, according to the Journal, the path to Atlantis will take us down a tunnel at the bottom of the ocean, and we'll come up a curve into an air pocket right here where we'll find the remnants of an ancient highway that will lead us to Atlantis."

"Kind of like the grease trap in your sink." finished Milo.

"Cartographer, linguist, plumber. Hard to believe he's still single." remarked Helga sarcastically.

"You said there'd be digging!" grumbled Mole.

"Go away, Mole." Helga shoved him away like a child bugging his mother.

"Captain, you'd better come look at this, sir." A sailor spoke up.

"Okay, class dismissed," Rourke replied as he went to take a look. "Give me exterior lights."

The lights soon came on as they took a look into the ocean. Atticus took a look, though he glanced over as he could had sworn he saw a mermaid swimming by before rubbing his eyes to see that no one was there, so he shrugged to himself as he dismissed it as wishful thinking.

"Hm?" asked Lionel, looking over.

"I thought I saw something... Or someone... Out there." Atticus shrugged.

"Hm...interesting." Lionel replied. "We can probably investigate later."

"Look at that..." exclaimed Helga as she, Rourke, and Milo got an eyeful of the wreckage.

"There are ships here from every era." exclaimed Milo.

"Awesome." Atticus nodded from that while looking with them.

Something else moved from the water, but they soon moved out of the way before any of them could see it.

* * *

"This must be what it's like to go 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea." Mo said as she held that exact book in her clutches, looking into the book that had Captain Nemo going on his own trek down under the sea.

"Or even lower." Harvey replied.

**_"Commander?" _**The intercom voice spoke up.**_ "Commander?"_**

"What's it mean?" Mo asked Milo.

"'Enter the lair of the Leviathan'." Milo began.

**_"Commander?"_** The voice continued.

"'There you will find the path to the gateway'." Milo then continued.

**_"Commander?"_ **The voice continued.

"Yes, Mrs. Packard, what is it?" Rourke soon addressed the voice.

**_"I'm picking up something on the hydrophone I think you should hear."_** The voice then told him.

"Put it on speakers." Rourke replied.

The person did so, and there were loud, inhuman sounds from outside.

"Sounds like me with a tummy ache." Drell said, holding his stomach then.

"What is it?" Rourke wondered as he and Helga came beside Mrs. Packard. "A pod of whales?"

"Uh-uh. Bigger." Mrs. Packard shook her head.

"It sounds metallic," Helga replied. "Could be an echo off one of the rocks."

"Do you want to do my job?" Mrs. Packard asked firmly. "Be my guest."

"Sounds like it's getting louder." Harvey spoke up.

"Maybe cuz it's coming CLOSER!" Lionel exclaimed in shock.

Rourke and Helga grew quiet as they glanced around curiously. The sound soon died out rather quickly.

"Well, whatever it was, it's gone now." Helga then said.

"Helmsman! Bring us about," Rourke commanded the sailor at the controls. "Tighten our search pattern and slow us to-"

CRASH!

"...I think we've found the Leviathan..." Sabrina gulped nervously.

The alarm soon blared as they began to knock all around a bit off-course.

"Out of the way!" A girl cried out as she ran by.

Water began to flood into the ship as they were tossed around in the ocean.

"Tell Cookie to melt the butter and break out the bibs," Rourke told Helga. "I want this lobster served up on a silver platter."

"Load the torpedo bays!" Helga soon commanded to the others. "Subpod crews, battle stations!"

The group looked at each other, feeling especially nervous.

"What's gonna happen to us?!" Sabrina yelped.

"We're gonna die." Cherry said flatly.

"We are not going to die; we'll be fine." Drell reassured.

"I'll have the escape pods ready." Lionel noted.

"Steady, boys," Rourke told his men on the intercom as they got into position. "Don't panic."

* * *

Milo and the group soon fell right against the glass looking out into the ocean.

"Well, that wasn't _too_ painful, I guess." Cherry muffled.

A beady red eye was shown to be looking at them.

"Jiminy Christmas!" Milo gasped at what he saw. "It's a machine!"

"Makes me wonder who's piloting that thing?" Atticus stated.

The pods soon launched out into the ocean.

"When did we get in Star Trek?!" Cherry grunted a bit.

"When the ship exploded." Mo replied.

"Thank you, Monique." Cherry rolled her eyes.

"Ay! Watch it with that Monique stuff!" Mo replied.

Torpedoes were soon shot out at the Leviathan. But they barely seemed to faze the mechanical monstrosity. A shot soon hit right through the ship.

"Yikes!" Sabrina and Harvey yelped from that.

"Sir, it's engineering on four!" Someone yelped.

"Rourke! We took a big hit down here and we're taking on water fast!" A girl's voice warned on the intercom. "I don't want to be around when it hits the boilers!"

"How much time do we have?" asked Rourke.

"20 minutes, if the bulkhead holds," said Audrey. "...Better make that five."

"You heard the lady. Let's move!" Rourke soon commanded.

"Move!" The men added.

Cherry and the others soon came off of the window with Milo only to get shoved away suddenly downstairs.

"Where? Move where?" Milo asked.

"Packard, sound the alarm!" Helga commanded.

"He took his suitcase?" Mrs. Packard droned as she seemed to be talking on the phone with a friend while taking a smoke break. "Marge, honey, I don't think he's comin' back."

"Packard!" Helga glared.

"I have to call you back," Mrs. Packard then said to her friend. "No, no, I'll call you."

Milo and the others ran through the hallways before racing to the escape pod.

"Move it, people! Sometime today would be nice!" Helga shouted as everyone got aboard and buckled themselves in.

"I'm going as fast as I can!" Cherry replied.

"Lieutenant, get us out of here!" Rourke commanded to Helga, though she seemed to be slow. "Lieutenant!"

"I'm working on it!" Helga told him.

The Leviathan came back and shot a bolt of electricity through the ship's hull, piercing it, as Helga managed to get the pod to launch.

"Hang on." she remarked as she sat down, piloting the pod away from the ship as it exploded.

"Jeez Louise..." Harvey whispered with wide eyes in horror.

"Where to, Mr. Thatch?" Rourke soon asked.

"We're looking for a big crevice of some kind." Milo replied.

Rourke took a look before pointing out. "There! Up ahead."

"All craft, make your mark." Helga then commanded.

"Roger! 20 degrees down angle." A sailor replied.

"Right behind you!" Mole added.

* * *

So they sped towards the crevice, with the Leviathan coming dangerously close to tearing them apart, as it took out two of the escape pods. They managed to make it inside the crevice, but the Leviathan's lightning rays took out a few more ships.

"Okay, next time we go on vacation, let's go somewhere more remote!" Hilda said to Drell. "Like the city of El Dorado!"

"You nuts?!" Drell replied. "I'd take Tzekel-Kan over this!"

"Huh?" asked Lionel, once more confused.

"Nothing?~" Drell replied innocently.

"It's only a grease trap. It's just like a sink," Milo told himself as he began to feel very nervous. "It's only a grease trap. It's just like a sink!


	4. Chapter 4

Eventually, the groups managed to resurface inside the crevice...at least, the remaining members of the crew succeeded.

"Looks like... We made it." noted Sabrina.

Vinny and Mole soon opened the hatch to look around as they made it above the water.

* * *

They came out onto the shore to explore a bit after their rocky ride.

"So, you gonna tell me what a Tzekel-Kan is or what?" Lionel asked.

"Eh, he's a back-stabber," Drell replied. "I'll hook you up if you guys end up going to El Dorado, but what're the chances of that?"

"In our line of work? I'd say they're pretty darn good..." Lionel replied.

"Eh, touché, let's just say it involves two men by the name of Tulio and Miguel." Drell said.

"Makes me think of a story Maritza told me that she heard from family members from Mexico." Sabrina commented.

"I'll pencil that in for another time..." Lionel replied. "Now to get out and scout the area."

"That's my line." Drell replied.

"You'll be fine." Cherry told him.

* * *

They soon explored a bit and decided to camp out as they had no other choice, but first, Joshua lit a candle and put it in a helmet before letting it drift out into the water as a sign of respect and memory for the recently deceased.

"Seven hours ago, we started this expedition with 200 of the finest men and women I've ever known," Rourke spoke to the others softly. "We're all that's left. I won't sugar-coat it, gentlemen. We have a crisis on our hands, but we've been up this particular creek before, and we've always come through, paddle or no paddle. I see no reason to change that policy now."

The others listened closely while remaining silent for a while.

"From here on in, everyone pulls double duty," Rourke then continued. "Everyone drives, everyone works. Looks like all our chances for survival rest with you, Mr. Thatch," he then concluded to Milo. "You and that little book."

"We're all gonna die." replied Packard flatly.

"At least she maintains a positive attitude..." Lionel remarked sarcastically.

"Okay, people. Saddle up," Rourke began. "Lieutenant, I wanted this convoy moving five minutes ago."

"Moliere, you're on point. No, Vinney, Audrey's taking the oiler," Helga soon commanded. "You know the rules. I want you 50 yards behind that truck at all times. And, Packard, put out that cigarette."

Rourke turned to see Milo honking the truck horn a few times.

"Are you sure you're checked out on this class of vehicle?" asked Rourke.

"Uh..." Milo replied.

"Can ya drive a truck?" asked Rourke.

"I can," Lionel replied. "I dunno about him, though."

"Pfft! Heh, heh. Of course I can drive a truck," Milo chuckled sheepishly before he soon got into the truck to grab a hold of the wheel, though he looked like he didn't know what he was doing. "I mean, sure, you got your steering, and your gas, and your brake, and, of course, this metal, uh, looking... Thing."

Rourke raised an eyebrow, a bit unimpressed.

"Okay, so it was a bumper car at Coney Island, but it's the same basic principle!" Milo smiled sheepishly.

"I'm not sure about that." Hilda shook her head from that.

Milo tried to drive the truck, but every few feet he came to a short, jerky stop...for several times, and this got on everyone's nerves.

"Next time... Someone else drives." Harvey sighed.

"Preferably not me." Cherry raised her hand.

"Sure, Cherry." Atticus replied.

Atticus soon decided to drive as they moved along the land to get settled in. Soon, they were making their way further into the ruins of the caverns.

"We're probably gonna stop for the night soon," Drell said. "It's been a long day for everybody."

"It really has." Hilda said, lying her head on his shoulder.

They continued to follow Milo's map in the journal before they found a skull-shaped landmark and went that way until a creature which looked like a killer caterpillar came out.

"What is that?!" Cherry gasped. "Get it before it gets us!"

Harvey threw a rock at it, which bounced off a larger rock, which fell and crushed the caterpillar monster. Milo chuckled nervously before pointing to the other side of the landmark. The crew glared a bit in annoyance before they soon moved that way. Something seemed to move in the shadows as they came by. Atticus looked around before bowing his head with a sigh as he wasn't sure what he saw, but no one else seemed to see it. Milo soon took a drink from the water canteen as Vinny walked by.

"You didn't just drink that, did you?" Vinny asked him.

"Mm-hmm." Milo nodded with his mouth full.

"That's not good," Vinny told him. "That's nitroglycerin."

Milo then gagged, looking scared.

"Don't move," Vinny instructed, backing up a bit warningly. "Eh, don't breathe. Don't do anything, except pray maybe."

"BOOM!" shouted Mole, making Milo leap into the air in shock.

Vinnie and Mole had a good laugh at his expense.

"Hm... Very funny..." Cherry rolled her eyes from that.

They then kept going for a while, taking caution on the way as Milo led them in the search. Joshua soon helped everyone up over a ledge, but seemed to forget about Milo and the others, so Atticus helped them out.

* * *

Later, as the others sat around the campfire eating dinner, Milo studied the journal by lamplight and triangulated their location.

"Guys, I hope you don't think I'm paranoid, but I feel like we aren't alone, like someone's been following us for a while." Atticus said as he got comfortable.

"You're right." Cherry said.

"You think so?" Atticus smiled hopefully.

"You _are_ crazy." Cherry said, making him anime fall.

"No, he's right," Lionel replied. "I sense that...creatures are lurking about...observing us from afar..."

"Creatures?" Hilda asked in concern.

"It must be the people of this land." Drell suggested as he roasted himself a hot dog.

"We'll probably meet them tomorrow." said Lionel as he got out a bagful of marshmallows and skewered them on a stick to put over the fire.

Milo seemed to have other things on his mind as he read the journal by the fire.

"Hey, Milo, don't you ever close that book?" Audrey asked him.

"Yeah, you must've read it a dozen times by now." Joshua added in agreement.

"I know, but this... This doesn't make any sense," Milo replied as he looked closely at the page he was currently studying. "See, in this passage here, the shepherd seems to be leading up to something. He calls it the heart of Atlantis," he then explained. "It could be the power source the legends refer to, but then it just; it cuts off. It's almost like there's a missing page."

"Curious..." Lionel noted.

"Kid, relax," Vinny told Milo. "We don't get paid overtime."

"I know, I know. Sometimes I get a little carried away," Milo said as he set down his food tray. "But, hey, you know, that's what this is all about, right? I mean, discovery, teamwork, adventure."

"I do that on an infrequent basis." Cherry commented.

The adventure group agreed from that.

"I like to see that spirit from you guys... All of you," Milo said to them before looking to the others curiously. "Unless, maybe, you're just in it for the money."

The others agreed on that.

"Called it!" Lionel noted.

"It'd be cool though if Drell paid us to go on adventures." Cherry mumbled.

"I couldn't afford that," Drell said before blowing on his hot dog to eat it. "Besides, isn't it enough that I can get you guys out of school without anyone being suspicious of your disappearances?"

"I guess..." Lionel shrugged.

"Talk it up with my assistant." Drell shrugged.

"He won't talk back." Cherry rolled her eyes from that.

"Exactly," replied Drell. "But he's GREAT with sign language."

"I used to know sign language, I guess I could try it again." Cherry shrugged bashfully.

Milo soon grunted a bit as he rubbed his neck.

"You okay, Milo?" Mo asked. "You seem a little stiff."

"Oh, yeah, I must've hurt it when-AH!" Milo said before yelping as Joshua came up behind him to help straighten him out a little like a chiropractor.

"Better?" Joshua soon asked.

"Yeah!" Milo smiled a bit. "Hey, how'd you learn how to do that?"

"An Arapaho medicine man." Joshua replied.

"What's... Arapaho?" Cherry asked. "If you don't mind me asking?"

"That's my home," Joshua explained before showing a photograph of his parents. "My father was an army medic. He settled down in the Kansas Territory after he met my mother."

"Whoa...pretty neat!" Harvey replied.

"I also got a sheepskin from Howard U," Joshua then said before showing a special necklace he was wearing. "And a bearskin from old Iron Cloud. Halfway through medical school, I was drafted. One day I'm studying gross anatomy in the classroom, the next I'm sewing up Rough Riders on San Juan Hill."

"Man, Mr. Sweet, you have quite a life." Atticus smiled admirably.

"I'm sure you've got your own share of tales, young man." Joshua smiled back.

"Oh, definitely." Lionel replied.

"But most of them are pretty unbelievable." Harvey added.

"Main course." Cookie smirked as he soon appeared.

"Oh, uh, I couldn't eat another bite." Sabrina smiled sheepishly.

"I'm watching my weight." Cherry added.

"Ha ha ha, don't you worry," Cookie chuckled before going off with his cuisine. "It'll keep and keep and keep..."

"This is why I brought my OWN food..." Lionel whispered to the others.

The others scooted a bit closer towards Lionel, feeling thankful for that.

"Thank God I lost my sense of taste years ago." Mrs. Packard muttered as she slid her food into the fire.

The others soon joined in which put the fire out.

* * *

Eventually, everyone gathered around to get going in tents for that night after eating dinner.

"I guess sleeping in a tent will do for tonight." Cherry said.

"I like sleeping in a tent," Drell said before smirking towards Hilda. "It feels nice to have to keep each other warm for the night~"

"Oh, without a doubt~" chuckled Hilda.

"And that's why I'm glad to have separate tents." Sabrina remarked, and her friends couldn't help but agree.

"Aren't you going to pitch up your tent?" Vinny soon asked Milo, seeing a bit of a pitiful tent job.

"Uh, I did," Milo replied. "I guess I'm still a little rusty at this. I haven't gone camping since, well, the last time my grandpa took me."

Vinny soon went to fix the tent for Milo, doing a much better job of course.

"I never got to meet your grandfather," Audrey commented curiously. "What was he like?"

"Where do you start?" Milo smiled softly as he got settled in. "He was like a father to me, really. My parents died when I was a little kid, and he took me in." he then chuckled a little from a memory.

Lionel blinked. "Must've been neat." he replied.

Milo chuckled to himself.

"What?" asked Audrey.

"Just thinking...one time when I was 8, we were hiking along the stream, and I saw something shining in the water. It was a genuine arrowhead. Heh, you'd think I'd found a lost civilization the way Grandpa carried on about it..." Milo replied.

"Drell, do you know anything about Milo's parents?" Cherry whispered.

"Yes, I'll tell you later." Drell whispered back as he put out his and Hilda's sleeping bags and pillows.

"Must be nice to bond with your grandparents..." Atticus said softly and distantly.

"Yeah, it sure was something." Milo smiled.

Atticus smiled back before looking a little sad since he never really knew his own grandparents. Cherry felt the same way until she recently discovered her grandmother was alive and well and had to go into the Supernatural Realm for a case of extreme emergency shortly after her granddaughter was born, so the two bonded regularly now, but he felt a little alone. Lionel patted him on the shoulder. He'd never had birth parents, let alone grandparents, so he at least knew where Atticus was coming from on this.

"It wasn't until I was older that I realized that the arrowhead was just some compressed shale mixed with zinc pyrite that had fractured into an isosceletic triangulate." Milo then continued.

Mole chuckled as he came by on his way to bed. "Zat is so cute!"

Cherry rolled her eyes slightly.

"Say, Audrey, uh, no offense, but how does a teenager become the chief mechanic of a multi-million dollar expedition?" Milo soon asked the girl.

"Well, I took this job when my dad retired," Audrey replied as she settled in. "But the funny thing was he always wanted sons, right?"

"Right?" The others replied.

"One to run his machine shop and the other to be middleweight boxing champion," Audrey then continued. "But he got my sister and me instead."

"So, what... What happened to your sister?" Milo then asked.

"She's 24 and O, with a shot at the title next month," Audrey replied. "Anyway, I'm saving up so my Papi and I can open another shop."

"Hey, that's pretty amazing," Lionel replied. "Forget your jammies, Ms. Packard?"

"I sleep in the nude." replied Packard as she stalked off, while Lionel and Harvey's faces turned green.

"Gonna want a pair of these," said Joshua, tossing them eye masks. "She sleepwalks."

"Good idea..." Harvey replied, putting his on.

"Well, as far as me goes, I just like to blow things up." Vinny shrugged as he put on his sleep mask.

"Come on, Vinny, tell the kids the truth." Joshua told Vinny, smacking his mask slightly to scold him.

Vinny sighed from that and soon explained his life story to the group. "My family owned a flower shop," he then told them. "We would sell roses, carnations, baby's breath, you name it."

"Sounds nice." Mo commented.

"One day, I'm making about three dozen corsages for this prom," Vinny then continued. "You know, the one they put on their wrist. And everybody, they come. 'Where is it?'," he then began to quote. "'When is it?' 'Does it match my dress?'. It's a nightmare. Anyway, I guess there was this leak next door of gas or what. Boom! No more Chinese laundry. Blew me right through the front window. It was like a sign from God. I found myself that boom."

Lionel watched Mole digging himself a hole to sleep in. "What's _his _story, anyway?" he asked.

"Trust me on this one. You don't wanna know," Joshua replied. "Audrey, don't tell him. You shouldn't have told me, but you did. And now I'm telling you, you don't wanna know."

"...We'll keep that in mind." Cherry said.

Joshua nodded and soon turned out the lantern so that they could get some sleep.

"So, uh, Milo's parents?" Atticus asked Drell curiously.

"Hm? Oh, yeah," Drell replied as he got comfortable. "Their names were Augustus Avery and Lucille Rose Thatch. Thaddeus's son and daughter-in-law."

"Interesting." Lionel noted.

"What happened to them?" Atticus asked.

Drell sighed softly. "They died in a railway accident in 1885, I'm afraid."

Harvey winced. "Talk about life suddenly going off the rails..." he remarked. "I'm sorry, I shouldn't have said that..."

"Yeah... Not a really smart thing to say, Harry." Drell replied.

Harvey sighed, both from the misnaming and his smart remark.

"All right, now if that's all, I gotta get some shut-eye so I don't get cranky." Drell then told them.

"When isn't he cranky?" Cherry mumbled.

"Yadda-yadda, time for sleeping." Lionel replied.

Eventually, everyone went straight to sleep, though Atticus felt a bit glad to hear more about Milo's parents since Drell knew almost everyone there was to know due to his job and age.

* * *

While they slept though, they had some company.

"Anyone hear something...?" asked Mo.

"Apart from us talking, not really..." Lionel grunted.

"I know something's out there..." Mo said. "I have pretty sharp instincts since I lived in a junkyard for a while."

"Interesting... Maybe there are natives trying to wait for the opportunity to attack." Lionel suggested.

"Guess we better check this out," Atticus said before looking over. "Shh... Don't wake up Drell."

Drell snored a bit loudly as he was seen snuggling with Hilda in his sleep as they snuck out of their tents with flashlights to see if something was really out there or not, trying not to wake him up because that was never a good idea.

* * *

They managed to get past and sneak over to the surrounding site. There were masked beings at their campsite who were rummaging through their stuff. One seemed to find a framed photograph of young Milo with his grandfather, touching the image of Thaddeus a bit.

"Hey...what're those guys doing with Milo's stuff?" asked Mo curiously.

"Looks like they're trying to steal it," Cherry glared. "Let's get 'em."

"Alrighty then!" Lionel replied. "Way ahead of ya."

Suddenly, Milo came out which made the invaders look over before running off, so he clicked on his flashlight, sleepily as he sensed something.

"Cowards." Cherry narrowed her eyes.

"Guess they've never been en-LIGHT-ened before..." Lionel remarked.

Cherry sweat-dropped slightly from the pun.

"Hey, I saw the opportunity and I took it," replied Lionel. "Besides, if they come back, we're prepared."

"Yeah..." Cherry nodded from that.

Milo soon took a look around, using his flashlight around a bit, though no one seemed to come out.

"Alright...maybe they went home..." Harvey remarked. "Maybe now we can go back to bed."

"Yeah, I was in the middle of a great dream." Cherry narrowed her eyes in a bit of annoyance.

"Then perhaps you can pick up where you left off." Lionel replied as they went back to their tents.

"I guess I could try." Cherry said on the way before yawning a bit.

And so, the group returned to sleep once more.

* * *

It seemed to be a good sleep so far until they were suddenly woken up again, but this time, it was a life or death emergency.

"What? What is it?" asked Mo, disoriented from being woken up again so suddenly.

"FIRE! FIRE!" Drell called out, running over to wake up his students in urgency.

The kids yelled in surprise and ran out, seeing the flames that were spreading like crazy.

"Yeah, time to get moving." Lionel remarked.

Everyone rushed around in a panic to put out the fire.

"Get some water on that fire!" Helga cried out.

"No time! Get us into those caves!" Rourke called to the others. "Move it! Move it! Move it!"

"Oh, man-oh-man-oh-man..." Harvey yelped as the group practically scuttled about while making it into the caves as the fire raged on.

Cherry coughed and sputtered a bit, waving off what looked like fireflies as they left the flaming campsite.

"Yee-haw!" Cookie laughed on the way out.

"Wait, where's Milo?" Hilda soon asked.

Milo was shown to be running as he tried to catch up.

"Milo, jump!" Cherry told him.

"Right now!" Audrey added.

Milo soon jumped into the back with them so he wouldn't get left behind. They managed to get out, but one guy's truck caught on fire and exploded.

"Oh, shoot!" Atticus gasped.

The bridge began to crack and crumble from that.

"No, no, no, no, no, no, no!" Mole cried out as he began to ride backwards from the collapsing bridge.

"**GET YOUR GRIMY ASS ACROSS THIS BRIDGE ALREADY!**" Lionel shouted at him, pulling his drill over the bridge as it cracked and broke.

"I don't think we can hold on!" Cherry cried out.

"We just gotta make it across!" Lionel replied...before the bridge gave way and sent them all tumbling into the darkness.

"Nooooo!" The others cried out as that didn't really help.

Audrey yelled out as they were sent back off of the bridge with no escape.

Rourke soon lit a match to clear up the darkness a little. "All right, who's not dead? Sound off." he then demanded.

The others groaned and muttered a bit from their crash.

"Danged lightnin' bugs done bit me on my sit-upon," Cookie grumbled. "Somebody's gonna have to suck out that poison. Now don't everybody jump up at once."

Rourke switched on a headlight. "Audrey? Gimme a damage report."

"Not as bad as it could've been," said Audrey. "We totalled Rigs 2 and 7, but the digger looks like it'll still run. Lucky for us, we landed in something soft."

"All zis ash..." The Mole analyzed. "We are standing in ze base of a dormant volcano."

Helga shoved him a bit before shooting a flare out the opening which took a rather long time. "It just keeps going..." she then muttered.

"Maybe that's our ticket outta here." Vinny suggested.

"Maybe not," Mole replied. "The magma has solidified in the bowels of the volcano, effectively blocking the exit."

"I got the same problem with sauerkraut." Mrs. Packard muttered.

"Wait..." said Joshua. "You're telling me this thing could blow at any moment?"

Mole laughed. "Non. It would take a force of sheer explosive magnitude to do zat."

"Well, let's hope that doesn't happen then?" Cherry said sheepishly.

Everyone then instinctively looked over at Vinny at the mention of "explosives".

"Maybe I should do this later, huh?" Vinny suggested as he was shown to be working on something.

"Yeah...probably." said Lionel.

"If we could blow the top off of that thing, we'd have a straight shot to the surface," Rourke suggested. "Mr. Thatch, what do you think?"

There wasn't an answer which began to concern everyone.

"Mr. Thatch?" Rourke then asked, looking around for Milo who seemed to be missing. "Thatch?!"

"Looks like Milo got separated from us in the midst of the chaos..." Lionel noted. "We oughta go find him."

"Come on, we better find him." Mo suggested.

Everyone took a flashlight to look around for Milo.

"He couldn't have gone too far." Drell said, covering himself with a blanket.

"Hopefully." Hilda added, also covered the same way.

"Mi-lo! Where are you? Hey, Thatch! Milo...!" everyone called as they went searching for him.

There was a small chanting heard.

"Oh, boy, I think we found some sort of lost tribe." Cherry commented.

"Perhaps they're the lost civilization of Atlantis..." suggested Lionel.

"Okay...lost civilization, sure..." Harvey replied. "My suspension of disbelief has pretty much dissolved by now, so why not?"

"Just have a sense of imagination," Cherry replied. "Your girlfriend's a teenage witch."

Sabrina smiled bashfully from that.

"Kids? Kids!" Drell called out, taking out his magic wand to use as a flashlight.

"We're over here," Atticus called. "And I think we figured out what took Milo...or rather, who."

"Yeah?" Drell replied.

"We think that it's the Atlantis... Atlantean... People..." Cherry said, not sure how to use that terminology.

"The Atlanteans!" Lionel piped up.

"Yeah, that!" Cherry replied.

"Interesting..." Drell said.

Atticus was soon grabbed and taken under the water somewhere.

"Hey! Let go of my friend!" Cherry glared.

Atticus yelled out as he was suddenly taken, though when his legs touched the water, he of course had his tail fin come out, he tried to fight back, but somehow, he was being pulled down beyond his control.

"Gangway!" Mo yelled as she and the others, save for Harvey, jumped into the water.


	5. Chapter 5

The others who had them soon had their own tail fins.

"Okay, whoever dragged Atticus down is going to be sushi when the others come back." Drell narrowed his eyes.

"Agreed," said Lionel. "Now to fan out and find him!"

Everyone then swam off together to go look for Atticus since he mysteriously vanished.

"Not enough Milo is missing...now Atticus is, too..." Lionel grumbled as he looked around.

Atticus grunted as he brought to a hiding place.

"Do you think it could be him?" A male voice asked.

"It's hard to say, but it's possible... I might have to ask Kashekim to make sure, but he has his mother's eyes..." A female voice replied.

"What's going on?" Atticus glared before looking to see who took him. "Why did you take me, and-" he then paused as he saw a black-haired and brown-eyed merman and a brown-haired and purple-eyed mermaid before yelping at them.

"Shh... It's alright..." The mermaid told him, trying to calm him down.

"Atticus! Where are ya?" shouted Lionel before glancing to the side. "Hey, what'cha doin' down there? And who are those guys?"

"Why did you take my friend?!" Cherry glared.

"I'm sorry, I should explain!" The merman replied. "He's our grandson!"

"Wait... WHAAAAAAAAAAA?" Lionel and Cherry asked in shock.

"Your grandson?" Atticus asked. "You mean you're... You're my..."

"Grandparents, yes," The mermaid replied. "Our friend Kashekim said this would happen. We had to meet you when we could."

"Grandparents...?" Atticus asked. "I don't _have_ any grandparents..."

"That you've met," The merman clarified. "He told us of a prophecy that you and some friends would come from the future in an adventure, and with that knowledge, we just had to meet you. We're your mother Emily and Aunt Athena's parents. My name is Duncan."

"And I'm Atlanta." The mermaid added.

"Welll...nice to meet you," Lionel replied. "This is Cherry Butler, Atticus' best friend/sister figure; his girlfriend Mo Brown; and I'm Lionel Schwartz, friend to your grandson and brother figure."

"I see..." Atlanta realized. "You must be the ones Kashekim had also foreseen."

"So you know about our adventures?" Atticus asked.

"Oh, yes," Duncan nodded. "Kashekim knows just about everything. He's a very good friend of ours as we're both from Atlantis."

"So... If you're from Atlantis..." Atticus's eyes widened. "That means I'm part Atlantean! ...I'm not sure how I feel about that."

"At this point, we're used to this kind of thing." Lionel shrugged.

"That's pretty cool though for you, Atticus," Cherry said to her childhood best friend. "Did you guys have to kidnap him though?"

"We're sorry about that," Atlanta replied. "We had to meet him somehow."

"Fair enough," Atticus shrugged. "I guess I see where I got my sense of adventure though," he then smiled softly. "It'd be nice to hear stories about my Aunt Athena though... Mom gets pretty emotional whenever she talks about her sister."

"I guess that could be cool," replied Lionel. "But we need to find Milo."

"Milo, huh?" Duncan asked. "A friend of yours we take it."

"Yeah," Atticus replied. "You see him?"

"Hmm... He's Thaddeus Thatch's relation, right?" Atlanta asked.

"Yes, ma'am," Mo replied. "Please tell us you've seen him."

"I think Kidagakash ran into him last night around where you folks were before that fire... By the way, I apologize for that." Duncan told them.

"Why? Not like you started it." replied Sabrina.

"...You didn't start it, right?" Atticus asked his grandparents.

"Of course not, that was an accident," Atlanta replied. "Let's get you back to the surface."

Atticus nodded as he followed them up with his friends.

* * *

"They've been down there a long time, Drelly Bean." Hilda pouted.

"Ah, it's not like they'll drown." Drell replied.

"Maybe, but I feel like we should keep an eye out for them." Hilda replied.

Drell looked softly to her before yelling out as someone grabbed his leg. "AUGH! Back you hideous beast!" he then glared, turning his wand into a bat as he was about to bash whatever did that.

"WAIT! Wait, wait, wait!" Cherry cried out, pulling herself up to show that she did that. "Drell, it's me!"

"Yeah, so watch it with the bashing, before I bash YOU in!" added Lionel.

"Oh, kids, there you are," Drell said before pulling them out. "We were getting worried."

The others soon climbed out of the water.

"Are you dears alright?" Hilda asked.

"We're fine," Mo replied. "Just exploring the deep blue sea... And finding Atticus's long-lost grandparents."

"Yep, turns out he's half-Atlantean," said Lionel. "Who would've thought?"

"Heh... Your family tree, Atticus..." Drell replied. "It's just full of surprises."

"You mean you didn't know that?" Cherry asked. "I thought you knew everything?"

"Yeah... Well... You... I just... The years..." Drell stammered while the others smirked. "Let's just keep up with the crew before we get left behind!"

The group smirked as they followed behind.

* * *

Milo was shown to be climbing after the people who found him and the group seemed to end up following him. "Where are you going" he then called out. "Come back! Hey, wait a minute!" His voice soon echoed as the ground ended up in what looked like a beautiful jungle area.

"Whoooa..." The adventure group muttered to themselves.

"It looks like the world of Avatar..." Atticus said. "Not that air-bender, but that movie with the blue cat people."

"That movie felt so pretentious when it came out." Drell rolled his eyes.

"Not to mention it reminded me of Ferngully and Pocahontas." Cherry added.

"I never saw it, it just felt boring to me." Lionel replied.

"I usually watch it when I need to sleep." Drell smirked a bit.

They soon felt a rumbling and they all nearly fell off of the ledge, but a certain drill was shown coming in. The crew had come to catch up with Milo, but soon looked dumbfounded in what he had found.

"Sweet mother of Jefferson Davis!" Cookie gasped.

"It's beautiful." Audrey smiled.

"Milo, I gotta hand it to you," Joshua smiled to Milo, putting his arm around him. "You really came through."

"...Yeah..." Harvey replied, having shown up.

The natives were soon seen running about and around before standing in front of the group, startling them all then as they had weapons.

"Uh, I take that back." Joshua then said.

"Holy cats!" Rourke gasped. "Who are these guys?"

"They gotta be Atlanteans." Milo smiled hopefully.

"What? That's impossible!" Helga scoffed.

"I seen this back in the Dakota," Cookie warned the others. "They can smell fear just by looking at ya. So keep quiet, know whut I mean?"

"Oh, good grief..." grumbled Drell.

One of the natives soon said something, though no one seemed to understand it.

"I think it's talking to you." Mole said to Milo.

Milo soon stepped out to talk with the natives as one soon talked back before removing the mask to show it was a beautiful looking young Atlantean woman.

"What are they saying?" Drell asked his students.

"We don't have our phones or Equestrian medallions to translate." Cherry said bashfully.

"Convenient!" Drell deadpanned.

"Only because YOU said we couldn't!" Lionel replied. "If anything, this is on YOU!"

"I said you couldn't bring your medallions?!" Drell replied. "I don't recall that!"

"Well, you said we couldn't bring our phones," replied Lionel. "And nobody mentioned our medallions until now!"

"You almost always wear those medallions!" Drell replied.

"Please no arguing!" Mo cried out. "We'll just rely on Milo for translations."

"Okay." The others replied, even if Drell and Lionel sort of got at each other's throats.

The native woman soon said something that Mole seemed to recognize.

"Zey speak my language!" Mole beamed before speaking French to the native woman. "Pardon, mademoiselle?"

The native woman listened before then punching him away in offense.

"Ooh, I like her." Joshua chuckled, clapping his hands to that.

"Hmm! 'Bout time someone hit him; I'm just sorry it wasn't me." Audrey smirked.

The group chuckled at that. The other natives soon removed their masks and began to smile and calm down as they felt safe around the visiting group.

"How do they know all these languages?" Audrey wondered.

"Their language must be based on a root dialect," Milo replied. "It's just like the Tower of Babel."

"Well, maybe English is in there somewhere," Rourke said to him before speaking aloud to the natives. "We are explorers from the surface world. We come in peace."

"Welcome to the city of Atlantis," The native woman announced to them before taking Milo's hand and running with him. "Come. You must speak with my father now."

"Alright, that should be an interesting experience." noted Drell as he and the others followed Kida and Milo.

* * *

They soon crossed a bridge over what looked like a lava river below.

"Squad 'B', head back to the shaft, and salvage what you can." Rourke commanded.

"Yes, sir!" An officer replied.

"We'll rendezvous in 24 hours." Rourke then said.

"Let's move it," The officer then said. "You heard him."

Mole chuckled and beamed as he sat beside Vinny. "I'm so excited!"

Vinny just glanced at him strangely as they rode down the bridge together.

* * *

Meanwhile, our main group was following Kidakagash and Milo to her father, the king of Atlantis.

"So, what did you say your name was?" Atticus asked the princess.

"Kidakagash." The girl replied.

"Kida... Kid... Ga..." Cherry stammered a bit, having trouble with saying the name.

"How about we call you 'Kida' for short?" Atticus suggested.

"Hmm... Kida... I think I like that." The princess then said.

"I can say it either way, but I guess Kida is alright." Lionel shrugged.

"I like Kida, it sounds cute." Mo smiled.

They continued to cross the bridge as they were on their way into Kida's tribe.

"Now, what's really amazing is that if you deconstructed Latin, you overlaid it with a little Sumerian, throw in a dash of Thessalonian, you'd be getting close to their basic grammatical structure," Milo gushed while Helga and Rourke looked a little annoyed with him. "Or at least you'd be in the same ball park-"

"Someone's having a good time." Helga smirked.

"Like a kid at Christmas." Rourke chuckled.

"At least someone is..." Harvey replied, confused.

"Commander, there were not supposed to be people down here," Helga said to Rourke. "This changes everything."

"This changes nothing." Rourke replied.

"Take that, Mr. Harcourt!" Milo laughed before looking over in amazement to see the Atlantean tribe up close.

"Yeah, ya tubby bastard," Lionel snickered. "So...these are Atlanteans...they're so...amazing!"

"It's incredible..." Cherry added.

"It's like a place of dreams." Atticus nodded.

* * *

A pair of guards at the door soon let them in through the open doors to explore more of Atlantis up close to meet Kida's father. There were merpeople in the waters around the kingdom which made Atticus smile a bit as he waved to them and they waved back like they knew him. Drell soon gave the adventure group their medallions as Kida began to speak to her father in their native language and now, they could understand what was going on like when Cherry and Atticus met the Teen Titans in Tokyo.

"Greetings, Your Highness," Kida bowed to her father. "I have brought visitors."

"Nice to meet you, Your Highness," Lionel waved. "We come from the surface world on a mission of discovery!"

"You know the law, Kida," Kashekim told his daughter. "No outsiders may see the city and live."

Milo soon bowed with the adventure group while Helga and Rourke just stood there.

"Father, these people may be able to help us." Kida urged.

"We do not need their help." Kashekim replied sharply before dismissing the group.

"Aw, come on, man," Cherry said. "We might not speak the same language, but you can let us help you."

Kashekim looked a bit surprised that Cherry knew what he was saying.

"Yeah! With...whatever your problem is that you face!" Lionel added.

"Your Majesty?" Rourke soon spoke up.

"Oh, man." Drell face-palmed, not liking this already.

"On behalf of my crew, may I say it is an honor to be welcomed to your city." Rourke smiled innocently to Kida's father.

"Ahem. Uh, excuse me? Commander?" Milo spoke up nervously.

"You presume much to think you are welcome here." Kashekim told Rourke.

"He's made it clear he doesn't want us here." said Harvey.

"I know what you seek, and you will not find it here," Kashekim told Rourke. "Your journey has been in vain."

"But we are peaceful explorers, men of science." Rourke replied.

"And yet you bring weapons." Kashekim then reminded.

"Our weapons allow us to remove obstacles we may encounter." Rourke chuckled innocently.

"Some obstacles cannot be removed with a mere show of force," Kashekim replied. "Return to your people. You must leave Atlantis at once."

"Well, that's a bummer, but okay, thank you, I guess we'll go, live long and prosper." Cherry said before doing a Vulcan hand gesture.

"Yeah, and watch out for Unicron," Lionel added. "'Til all are one."

Atticus felt confused over what they were doing.

"Star Trek." Cherry told him.

"Oh. Okay." Atticus then said.

"Also, Transformers: The Movie." Lionel added.

"Oh, yeah, I think I know what you mean now by Unicron." Atticus then nodded from Lionel's reference.

"Oh, Your Majesty, be reasonable." Rourke told Kashekim.

"Sir-" Milo tried to speak up.

"Not now, son," Rourke replied. "Trust me on this."

"We better do as he says." Atticus suggested, referring to the King of Atlantis.

"May I respectfully request that we stay one night, sir?" Rourke soon asked of Kashekim innocently. "That would give us time to rest, resupply, and be ready to travel by morning."

The group looked on, nervous at how King Kashekim would respond.

"Hmm... Very well," Kashekim soon said as he held onto his staff. "One night. That is all."

"Well, thank you, Your Majesty." Rourke beamed from that before he and the others would take their leave.

"I guess one night is enough time to get acquainted with this place before we go..." Harvey shrugged.

"We'll take what we can get, Heathcliff." Drell replied.

"Yes, sir." Harvey mumbled from yet another misnaming.

The group soon walked out and the doors shut behind them while Kida looked concerned.

"We should probably get going." Duncan told his wife as he soon went under the water.

Atlanta nodded and joined him shortly afterwards. The others were waiting outside as the ones who went inside came back out.

"So, how'd it go?" Joshua asked.

"Well, the King and his daughter don't exactly see eye-to-eye," Milo replied. "She seems to like us okay, but the King; I don't know, I think he's hiding somethin'."

"Well, if he's hiding something, I want to know what it is." Rourke then said.

"Someone needs to talk to that girl." Helga smirked.

"_I_ will go!" Mole piped up hopefully.

"Someone with good people skills." Vinny replied from Helga.

"_I_ will do it!" Mole cried out.

"Someone who won't scare her away." Joshua added.

"_I_ volunteer!" Mole begged.

"Someone who can speak the language." Mrs. Packard droned.

"For ze good of ze mission, _I_ will go!" Mole saluted.

"Actually, we were thinking Thatch and his friends could do it," Rourke suggested. "They seem reasonable, trustworthy, dependable."

Mole groaned in dismay at this. Milo looked over curiously as he looked through his book, but noticed he was being talked about.

"Go get 'em, Tiger." Audrey playfully nudged Milo.

"Yeah, Milo. You can handle this," Sabrina urged. "You and Princess Kida seem to really be hitting it off."

"Uh, I guess I could try it out." Milo replied bashfully.

"Atta boy!" Lionel grinned. "You two crazy kids have fun!"

"Want some help?" Atticus asked Milo.

"If you want." Milo simply shrugged.

"Alright then," Atticus replied. "We'll be glad to help however we can!"

"Yeah, what he said," Lionel replied. "We got your back."

Milo looked very appreciative of that.

"Well, then..." Mo replied. "What're we waiting for? Let's do this!"

"I guess it could work." Cherry said.

They soon went off to their next task.

* * *

Kida was shown to be wandering as they hid away before going to approach her.

"Okay, Milo, don't take no for an answer," Milo told himself before practicing something to say to Kida. "'Look, I have some questions for you, and I'm not leaving this city until they're answered'!" he then nodded to himself. "Yeah, that's it. That's good, that's good."

"A little forceful, but alright," shrugged Harvey. "Could be worse."

They soon went to approach Kida, but surprisingly, she was gone.

"Hey, where'd she go?" Cherry complained.

The group each shrugged in response. Kida soon dropped down behind them, grabbing onto Milo's shoulder a bit. Milo looked around before seeing her and she covered his mouth to keep him from making too much noise.

"I have some questions for you, and I'm not leaving this city until they're answered." Kida smirked playfully.

"Yeah, well, I, okay-" Milo said before moving her hand only to get his mouth covered again.

"Shh! Come with me!" Kida then said before leading them somewhere.

"Well, if that's what she wants." Lionel shrugged playfully as he and the others trailed behind.

"She sure is playful." Mo commented.

"Yeah, almost reminds me of someone when I first met her." Atticus smirked playfully to her on the way.

"I have so much to ask about your world," Kida remarked. "...You _are_ a scholar, are you not?"

"What gave you that idea?" asked Milo.

"Judging from your diminished physique and large forehead, you are suited for nothing else!" Kida replied.

"Wow, thanks." Cherry deadpanned for Milo.

"What is your country of origin?" Kida soon asked Milo, taking his glasses as she tried to look through them. "When did the flood waters recede? How did you-"

"Wait a minute, Kida; Milo has some questions for you too." Atticus spoke up.

"He's right, let's do this, okay?" Milo added as he took his glasses back. "You ask one, then I'll ask one, then you, then me, then-Well, you get it."

"Very well," Kida replied. "What is your first question?"

"Well, okay, uh, how did you get here?" Milo soon asked Kida. "Well, I mean, not you personally, but your... Your culture. I mean, how did all of this end up down here?"

"Ooh, backstory." Harvey commented out of interest.

"That's a good question," Sabrina replied. "I've heard a few accounts of how Atlantis sunk, but maybe as someone who was there when it occurred, you can give us some insight on what _really _happened."

"I would be glad to," Kida replied. "It is said that the gods became jealous of Atlantis," she then explained, looking quite emotional over what she was saying to the group about her home's legacy. "They sent a great cataclysm and banished us here. All I can remember is the sky going dark, and people shouting, and running. Then, a bright light, like a star floating above the city. My father said it called my mother to it. I never saw her again."

"You lost your mom, huh?" Lionel asked. "That's...That's rough. No kid should hafta deal with that at such a young age."

The others had to nod to that, especially Mo since she was orphaned at a young age.

"I'm sorry," Milo soon added with sympathy. "If it... If it's any consolation, I-I know how you feel, because I lost my-" he then stopped as he realized something. "Wait a minute. Wait a minute! Whoa, back up! Wh-Wh-What are you telling me that you remember because _you_ were _there_?"

Kida simply nodded.

"No, that... That's impossible... because, I mean, that would make you, you know, 85, 88, 100 years old..." Milo said before guesstimating with the timeline.

"Yes." Kida simply stated that she was much older than she looked.

"Well, you have aged spectacularly," Lionel pointed out. "Must be something in your diet."

"I hope I can look that good when I'm Hilda and Zelda's age." Sabrina commented.

"Heh. Same here." Cherry replied from that.

"Oh, well, hey, uh, pfft! Lookin' good," Milo chuckled sheepishly to Kida. "Just, uh, ahem... You got another question for me?"

"Yes," Kida nodded. "How is it you found your way to this place?"

"Well, I'll tell you, it wasn't easy," Milo replied before showing the journal. "If it weren't for this book, we never would have made it."

"He's right," Atticus added. "That little book was a big help."

Kida took a look through the journal a bit.

"Okay, second question," Milo soon began to Kida. "Legend has it that your people possessed a power source of some kind that enabled them-"

"You mean you can understand this?" Kida asked.

"Yes, I'm a linguist," Milo nodded. "That's what I do, that's my job. Now, getting back to my question-"

"This, right here, you can read this?" Kida interrupted, shoving the book in his face.

"Yes, yes, I can read Atlantean, just like you." Milo replied.

Kida looked a bit soft from that.

"...You CAN read, can't you...?" Cherry then asked based on her reaction.

"No one can," Kida then replied. "Such knowledge has been lost to us since the time of the Mehbelmok."

"Huh... That _is _rough," Lionel remarked. "Well, it's never too late to learn."

"Show me!" Kida soon grinned to Milo hopefully.

"'Follow the narrow passage for another league'," Milo and Kida soon read together. "'There you will find the fifth marker'."

"Yeah. Yeah, that's it," Milo nodded to the princess. "How was my accent?"

"Boorish, provincial, and you speak it through your nose, though I guess you can't sound worse than that other lost city, Opar." Kida replied.

"Yeah, gotta work on that." Milo then nodded.

* * *

And so the group followed Kida.

"Wait...what's an Opar?" asked Lionel and Harvey, equally confused.

"It was a neighboring city from ours which is ruled by Queen La who was an old friend of mine." Kida replied.

"Ohhhh..." The two boys replied.

"I have not seen her in a long time." Kida said.

"Um... I'm so sorry." Cherry replied.

"Maybe they're out there somewhere," Mo replied. "It's not exactly impossible."

"Perhaps." Kida shrugged.

They soon continued to walk along until Kida had something to show them.

"Here, let me show you something." Kida said, uncovering something.

"What?" Milo asked until he took a look. "It looks like some sort of vehicle."

"Yes, but no matter what I try; it will not respond." Kida replied.

"Interesting...maybe Milo could take a crack at it." suggested Mo.

"Way ahead of you," Milo replied as he took a look at the vehicle. "Okay, let's see what we got here. Okay. 'Place crystal into slot'."

"Yes, yes, I have done that!" Kida replied.

"Okay, gently place your hand on the inscription pad?" Milo asked.

"Yes!" Kida replied.

"Okay, did you turn the crystal one-quarter turn back?" Milo then asked.

"Yes. Yes!" Kida replied, sounding a little agitated.

"While your hand was on the inscription pad?" Milo then asked.

"Ye-...No." Kida then said.

"Ah, well, see, there's your problem right there," Milo replied as he helped out. "That's an easy thing to miss. You know, you deserve credit for even... Even gettin' this far."

The others then waited as Milo did what he had to do before letting Kida take a turn.

"Okay, uh, give it a try." Milo then told her.

Kida soon did what was asked of her before the vehicle soon glowed and floated upward as she muttered in her native language.

"Way cool!" Mo exclaimed. "Looks like you got it running!"

"Yeah, you got that right," Milo replied. "Oh, th-this is great! With this thing, I could see the whole city in no time at all. Wonder how fast it goes?" he then said, reaching out to take the vehicle.

The vehicle soon sped up and raced around without them.

"Guess you should get on it if you wanna find that out." Cherry shrugged.

"If you can catch up to it, that is!" Sabrina chuckled.

The vehicle soon came by them before crashing.

"Hit the deck!" Cherry cried out before falling on the ground with the others as the vehicle zipped overhead of them.

"So, who's hungry?" Milo asked sheepishly.

"I could eat." Lionel replied, and everyone else agreed on that.

* * *

They soon began to climb up. Atticus and Lionel did their best to help out Cherry.

"By the way, we were never properly introduced," Milo said to the Atlantean princess. "My name's Milo."

"My name is Kidagakash." Kida replied.

"Ki-Ki-Kidamaschnaga," Milo tried to pronounce. "Uh, hey, you got a nickname?"

Kida giggled as she helped him up before telling him her nickname.

"Okay, Kida. I can remember that." Milo replied.

They soon climbed on top of a statue before looking all around Atlantis in wide wonder.

"Ki-da-ka-ga-shi," Lionel pronounced the syllables separately. "The idea is to say each syllable one by one, not too fast...but 'Kida' works, too."

"He is correct." Kida approved to that help.

"I'll try that next time." Cherry then added.

"Wooow... It looks amazing up here..." Sabrina commented. "This must be what it's like to be my mother... She explores a lot of places like this all the time, especially in Peru or Egypt..." she then sighed softly about her mother. "I bet going on adventures like an archaeologist is a lot of fun."

"It's okay, 'Brina, I'm sure your mother misses you too." Atticus coaxed.

"Yeah," replied Harvey. "I know I'd miss you a lot if I had to be away from you for a really long time."

Sabrina blushed a little from that while he smiled to her. Milo sighed himself, a bit emotionally.

"What is wrong?" Kida asked Milo.

"Oh, it's nothing. I just got something in my eye," Milo said, wiping his eyes a bit. "You know, my grandpa used to tell me stories about this place as far back as I can remember. I just wish he could be standing here with me."

"Hey, if he knew you'd made it this far, I bet he'd be so proud of you." replied Atticus.

"Thanks, Atticus." Milo replied.

"No problem, Milo." Atticus smiled.

"So how 'bout that food?" Cherry then asked.

"Come with me." Kida told them.

The group did just that, following behind.


	6. Chapter 6

A couple of Atlantean men met up together as they collected food before seeing Kida, Milo, and the group and tossed them some.

"Kinda looks like a dish for Red Lobster-...OW!" Cherry said, catching one before it pinched her nose.

"That's why we gotta crack them open first." Lionel replied as he cracked his open and drained the meat from inside.

"Right." Kida nodded as she did the same with hers.

Cherry soon did the same and beamed from the taste. "Ooh, that's just a little bit better than chicken!"

"Tell me more about your companions," Kida said to Milo. "Your physician, he is called Cookie?"

"No, that's Sweet." Milo corrected.

"What is?" Kida asked, confused at first.

"The doctor," Milo explained as Mo looked unsure about eating her food since she was a vegetarian. "He's Sweet."

"His name is Dr. Sweet, our chef is named Cookie," clarified Harvey. "Maybe Mo could get something more... Um, vegetarian? She's not really into eating meat and stuff like that."

"Do you eat plants?" Kida asked Mo.

"Yes, I do." Mo replied.

"Here... Try this." Kida said, giving a plate of planted Atlantean food.

"Hmm..." Mo smiled hopefully as she accepted the plate before trying one, then ate some more as she seemed to like it like a salad.

The others continued eating after that, glad that Mo got something that was more suited to her tastes.

"So all of your doctors are sweet and kindly?" Kida soon asked Milo.

"No. Well, I-I'm sure some are," Milo replied. "Ours is, but that's not a requirement. You're missing the point."

"You are confusing me." Kida said.

Cherry rolled her eyes and shook her head a bit.

"Wow. Look at all those tattoos." Audrey smiled to a native man who had marks around his body.

"Shoot. That ain't nuthin'," Cookie replied before lifting up his shirt to show a map tattoo. "Look here what I got. All 38 United States. Watch me make Rhode Island dance."

"Uh, no thanks." Hilda said nervously.

"This certainly is an... Interesting dinner." Drell noted as he ate his crustacean.

Two kids soon laughed and ran off together until Milo picked one up to carry over his shoulders. The parents laughed to the kid who made it across the bridge before they soon invited the group over for dinner.

"Man, this food is so unbelievable!" Atticus said, though he had a lot of fun.

"Mm-hmm!" The others agreed through mouthfuls of their foods.

"So... I think I understand about Milo's friends... So you are too?" Kida asked Atticus, Cherry, Lionel, Mo, and Sabrina.

"We're a bit new too, but yes," Sabrina replied. "We come from very, very, very far away."

"We go on adventures a lot." Cherry added.

"Too many to count!" Lionel added.

"I still think we should have a reward for every 100 adventures." Cherry grinned to Drell.

"Don't push it." Drell replied before eating another mouthful.

Cherry frowned at that, and went back to eating. Vinny stared at one item of food which seemed to stare back at him.

"Oh, don't forget to eat the head," Joshua told Vinny before doing just that to his. "That's where all the nutrients are."

Mole then gulped down his food before letting out a burp.

Kida giggled. "The one called Mole... He is your pet?" she asked.

"...He might as well be, considering how he acts." Milo replied.

* * *

Later on, they soon finished eating.

"Mm... I could use a nap..." Drell said as he felt very full now.

"Yeah... Same here~" belched Hilda before she giggled.

"Oh... It looks so beautiful at night..." Mo smiled as she looked out with Atticus.

"Yeah," Atticus smiled back. "Kinda reminds me of when we ran out at night with the fireflies with Angel and Scamp."

"I'll admit this is a great view." Lionel shrugged with a smile.

"Also makes me think of Ray." Cherry said as she waved her hand a bit among the Atlantean fireflies.

"Friend of yours?" asked Lionel.

"Yeah..." Cherry said softly about what happened to Ray. "That was the adventure with The Princess and the Frog."

"...Oh," Lionel put 2 & 2 together. "Well... I imagine that Ray must've been a great friend. I would've loved to meet him."

"He sure was eccentric." Atticus nodded from the memory of Ray the Firefly.

Lionel sighed. "...I think I'll head back to camp and turn in. I feel awkward trying to share memories of someone I've never met. Nothing personal, I just feel like the odd man out here." he replied.

"I didn't offend you, did I?" Cherry asked, genuinely concerned which Atticus and Mo were very proud to see. "I mean, I know you couldn't be there for everything..."

"No, I'm not offended," replied Lionel. "I just don't really feel like I have much to say about this Ray guy...apart from that I bet he was a lot of fun."

"We'll see you later then?" Cherry then asked.

"...Sure ya will." Lionel smiled as he turned and went back to camp.

Cherry then looked around as she stayed awake with the others. Drell and Hilda both fell asleep from their full stomachs.

"Ugh... That snoring..." Cherry said, about to plug Drell's nose.

"Touch me and die." Drell mumbled out without waking up.

Cherry quickly retracted her hand after that; it seemed that getting away from Drell while he slept was much safer than directly trying to stop his snoring.

"Here, let me help." Atticus said before using his magic to mute Drell like with a remote control to a TV.

"Works for me." Cherry nodded.

"It's the least I could do." Atticus replied.

"You know, Kida, the most we ever hoped to find was some crumbling buildings, maybe some broken pottery," Milo said as he played with some of the fireflies. "Instead, we find a living, thriving society. Heh, heh. These guys are kinda cute when they're not, you know formed into a fiery column of death."

"We are not thriving," Kida sighed as they collected some fireflies to light up a lantern. "True, our people live, but our culture is dying. We are like a stone the ocean beats against. With each passing year, a little more of us is worn away."

The group looked a little sad from that.

"I feel like I stepped into one of those animal rescue ads that always airs on the weekends," said Harvey. "I have this overwhelming feeling of guilt."

"I wish there was something I could do." Milo said to Kida.

"I have brought you to this place to ask you for your help," Kida replied before they moved the lantern. "There is a mural here with writing all around the pictures."

"Yeah, well, you came to the right guy," Milo then said as he took a look at one wall. "Okay, let me see. Let's start with this column right here. Uh, well, this-" he then looked bashful as it looked like Kida was undressing herself. "Uh, uh, Kida? Uh, heh, what are you doin'?"

"You do swim, do you not?" Kida asked him.

"Oh, I love swimming!" Atticus beamed. "Especially with Ariel!"

"You sure we shouldn't go back and get Lionel?" asked Mo. "Maybe he'd wanna come with us. It'd probably make things... Less awkward than they were earlier."

"Sure, I'll go get him if he isn't asleep." Cherry volunteered as she went that way.

"She really does care about him." Sabrina commented.

"That goes without saying." Harvey replied.

* * *

Lionel was back at the campsite, glancing at the area around him. The scenery was breathtaking, true, but he just needed to clear his head. Cherry soon scampered by before coming up behind him and poked his arm a little with a small smirk.

"Hm?" Lionel asked, glancing at her.

"Boo..." Cherry said.

"Nice try." Lionel replied.

"Meh," Cherry shrugged. "Uh, do you wanna go swimming?"

Lionel shrugged. "Okay." he replied, changing into a pair of shorts.

"I'm not a big swimmer myself, but I like getting in the water." Cherry said.

"Hey, that's alright." replied Lionel.

Once met up, everyone went to get some swimming in. Kida soon swam with them as her necklace glowed under the water. Needless to say, it was bewildering. Atticus smiled as he loved swimming more than the others, but that was probably because of his mer-folk genetics.

"This is...so invigorating..." Lionel marveled at the beauty of it all.

"Yeah... No words can describe this... It feels like one of my dreams..." Cherry commented.

Everyone agreed on that. However this moment could be summed up, it would take more than just words to do so. They soon came up to the surface after for a while, Milo and Kida gasping for air.

"Are you all right?" Kida asked Milo.

"Well, I didn't drown, so..." Milo shrugged sheepishly.

"Good. Follow me." Kida smiled before going back down underwater.

With a shrug, Milo was glad to oblige. The others shrugged to each other, then went back to following after Kida.

* * *

Eventually, they came up to the mural that Kida had talked about before, letting her necklace glow to show the picture.

"That must be the mural." Atticus concluded like a detective.

Milo took a quick glance at the image before going up in the surface with Kida to talk about what they just found. "This is amazing! A complete history of Atlantis!" he then beamed to the others. "It's just like Plato described it. Well, he was off on a few details, but-"

"The light I saw," Kida interrupted urgently. "The star in the middle of the city. What does the writing say about that?" she then asked.

"I don't know yet, but we're gonna find out," Milo replied before they went back down. "Come on."

"With more answers, come more questions..." shrugged Lionel as he and the others followed Milo and Kida as they continued their search.

"Well, I love a good mystery." Atticus smiled.

Cherry smirked. "You would. Now let's go." she replied.

Milo and Kida soon found more with the others behind them.

"This is so crazy and cool and creative." Sabrina commented.

"Definitely an underrated adventure by far." Cherry replied.

"Solid 10 in my book." agreed Lionel.

Milo soon gestured to Kida's necklace, having an idea before they came up to the surface.

"Sup, Milo?" Cherry asked.

"Sup?" Milo asked back. "What's sup?"

"Nuthin', what's sup with you?" Cherry said before laughing at her little joke, even though he wouldn't get it.

The others just rolled their eyes with knowing smirks at this as they came up for air.

"Anyway, Milo, you were saying?" Atticus then prompted.

"Oh, yeah!" Milo replied before showing Kida her necklace. "The Heart of Atlantis!"

"What?" Kida asked.

"It's the Heart of Atlantis!" Milo explained. "That's what the shepherd w-was talking about. It wasn't a star, it was... It was some kind of crystal... Uh, like these!"

Kida and the others looked a bit bewildered.

"Don't you get it?" Milo then clarified to them. "The power source I've been looking for, the bright light Kida remembers, they're the same thing!"

"That cannot be." Kida soon replied.

"It's what's keeping all these things you, all of Atlantis alive." Milo then said.

"Then where is it now?" Atticus wondered.

"I don't know, I don't know," Milo replied until he had an idea hit him. "You'd think something this important would have been in the Journal, but... Unless... The missing page."

"Someone must've ripped it out..." said Lionel.

"And by that, it would be...the one who found the journal!" Harvey added.

They turned to each other. "ROURKE!" they exclaimed.

* * *

They soon came up to the surface to find the man in question who seemed to be smirking at them.

"You have a nice swim?" Rourke smirked to them.

Behind him was the crew who all had guns, looking a bit firm and serious.

"Hey, guys," smiled Milo. "What's with the guns?"

"I think we're being betrayed..." said Mo.

Harvey sighed. "Never thought I'd hate being right..."

"You and me both, Kinkle." Lionel replied.

"Guys?" Milo frowned before grunting and hitting the floor he grabbed onto. "I am such an idiot. This is just another treasure hunt for you. You're after the crystal."

"Oh, you mean _this_?" Rourke smirked, taking out Milo's missing page.

"The Heart of Atlantis." Milo muttered then.

"Yeah. About that, I would've told you sooner, but it was strictly on a need-to-know basis, and, well, now you know," Rourke replied before holding out his hand to the group, though mostly to Milo. "I had to be sure you were one of us. Welcome to the club, kids."

Milo shoved his hand away.

"I'd say I can't believe you'd do this...but I can believe that." replied Lionel.

A masked man soon grabbed Kida out of the water. Milo went to intervene, but the others had guns out to keep him still. Kida then judo threw the man who grabbed her into the water with a growl before running away as she faced more, but could handle herself.

"I wish I could fight like that." Sabrina commented.

"Wait a sec... Where are Drell and Hilda?" Cherry soon wondered.

"Uh... Over here..." Drell said, coming over and had his hands in the air as he stood with Hilda who did the same as two men had their guns pointed in their backs.

"They caught us by surprise..." Hilda added sheepishly.

"Oh... Aunt Hilda... Uncle Drell..." Sabrina frowned worriedly.

"Hey, don't sweat it," said Drell. "We should be fine!... Hopefully."

"We're no mercenaries!" Mo glared.

Kida soon flinched as she was nearly shot at by Rourke as her knife was shot out of her hand. Two men soon took her away as she got one last kick in to the fallen victim before they removed her.

"Mercenary?" Rourke replied then after putting his gun away with a smirk. "I prefer the term 'adventure capitalist'," he then looked to Milo. "Besides, you're the one who got us here. You led us right to the treasure chest."

"You don't know what you're tampering with, Rourke." Milo glared as they came out of the water.

"What's to know?" Rourke smirked. "It's big. It's shiny. It's going to make us all rich."

"You think it's some kind of a diamond, Milo thought it was some kind of a battery, but we're both wrong," Atticus soon glared. "It's their life force. That crystal is the only thing keeping these people alive. You take that away, and they'll die. My family mgight die."

"Well, that changes things," Rourke replied, giving the page to his blonde friend. "Helga, what do you think?"

"Knowing that, I'd double the price." Helga smirked.

"I was thinking triple." Rourke then smirked back.

"People like you sicken me..." Atticus spat.

"Rourke, don't do this." Milo begged, going after Rourke only for Vinny to block his path.

"Academics. You never want to get your hands dirty," Rourke commented before tucking the page in his pants a bit. "Think about it. If you gave back every stolen artifact from a museum, you'd be left with an empty building. We're just providing a necessary service to the archaeological community."

"Not interested." Milo and the others replied in anger.

"I got to admit, I'm disappointed," Rourke told them before smirking to Milo slightly. "You're an idealist, just like your grandfather. Do yourself a favor, Milo. Don't be like him. For once, do the smart thing."

"His grandpa was probably 10 times the person YOU ever were!" Sabrina retorted.

Milo narrowed his eyes in anger towards Rourke.

"I really hate it when negotiations go sour." Rourke smirked before snapping his fingers.

A masked man soon aimed to shoot and kill the Atlantean princess to make Milo give in.

"Kida!" Mo gasped for the poor girl.

"Let's try this again." Rourke then smirked, showing the page to Milo.

The group looked down at the torn page. The decision was soon made as Vinny destroyed one wall with his explosives.

"Knock-Knock." Vinny stated.

"Room service!" Cookie added, getting ready to shoot.

The guards in the room with the king soon got ready to fight back against the other group.

"Tell them to drop their weapons... Now!" Helga demanded.

With a sigh of reluctance, Kida repeated the instructions to her people. The guards soon dropped their weapons.

"Atticus, no!" Atlanta and Duncan cried out.

"I'm so sorry." Atticus frowned to his maternal grandparents.

"As you can see, we don't exactly have much of a choice in the matter." said Lionel.

Rourke got ready to shoot the mer-folk couple.

"No!" Atticus cried out. "Don't hurt them!"

"We have done nothing," Atlanta said. "You are harming our friends and family enough as it is."

"So... Mermaids _do_ exist..." Rourke smirked a bit. "You call off your own guards and maybe you'll live on."

The group's glares were so fierce that they could practically shatter boulders. Duncan and Atlanta called off their own guards as well.

"I'm really sorry." Atticus frowned to his grandparents.

"It's okay, Atticus..." Atlanta said softly as she didn't blame her future grandson or his friends for this happening. "We know you don't mean it. You have a big heart like your parents."

"That I do..." Atticus nodded softly. "Also probably Aunt Athena."

"She's a sweetheart." Duncan added.

"Spread out!" Helga commanded to the crew. "Search everywhere!"

"You're not applying yourself, son," Rourke told Milo as he grabbed a hold of the feeble young man, shoving the book in his face a bit. "There's got to be something else."

"Well, there isn't," Milo glared a bit. "It just says, 'The Heart of Atlantis lies in the eyes of her king'."

"Well, then maybe Old King Cole here can help us fill in the blanks," Rourke said before coming up to Kashekim. "How about it, Chief? Where's the crystal chamber?"

"You will destroy yourselves." Kashekim glared bravely.

"Maybe I'm not being clear..." said Rourke.

Kida glared, but gasped in worry as her father was being hit by Rourke to make him talk before growling.

"Whoa... Language..." Duncan winced as Kida more or less swore in Atlantean.

"Rourke, this was not a part of the plan." Joshua said, kneeling beside the fallen king.

"Plan's changed, Doc," Rourke smirked as he soon went to sit in the king's throne, putting his feet up beside the fruit bowl. "I'd suggest you put a bandage on that bleeding heart of yours. It doesn't suit a mercenary. Well, as usual, diplomacy has failed us. Now I'm going to count to 10, and you're going to tell me where the crystal is." he then got ready to shoot.

The others began to look and feel horrified with Rourke's behavior.

"You monster!" Hilda cried with tears in her eyes.

"Maybe, but I'm going to be a very wealthy monster." replied Rourke casually.

Hilda soon broke down crying and Drell soon came to comfort his wife the best he could with their hands being up before he nuzzled his face against her face.

"I take back all those rotten things I've ever said about you when we were broken up." Hilda pouted to her husband as she felt Rourke was a lot worse.

"And I'm sorry for missing our first wedding." Drell replied.

The both of them hugged.

"1... 2... 9... Te-" Rourke glared at Kashekim, about to shoot until he noticed something in the distance as he glanced at the journal in his lap. "'The Heart of Atlantis lies in the eyes of our king'..." he then memorized. "This is it! We're in!" he then walked off, shoving the journal into Milo's hands.

Duncan and Atlanta moved a bit within the water.

"Rourke, for the last time, you've got to listen to me," Milo told Rourke. "You don't have the slightest idea what this power is capable of."

"True, but I can think of a few countries who'd pay anything to find out." Helga replied as she took a hold of Kida.

"Yeah, that doesn't bode well..." Lionel muttered.

They soon felt a rumbling as a hole opened up, taking Rourke down with him as he grabbed Milo to go down with him. "Hurry, get on!"

Helga then dragged Kida along too. Atticus looked to his friends and soon brought them along too.

"We'll be back!" Sabrina told her aunt and uncle. "...I hope."

"Good luck," Hilda said.

"Give 'em hell, kiddo." Drell added.

Sabrina nodded as she led her friends down the hole. The others slowly came down as they were brought into another part of Atlantis as if going down an elevator shaft.

* * *

"Jackpot." Rourke grinned from their discovery.

They saw what looked like masks floating around.

Kida looked up, a bit overwhelmed as she muttered to herself with tears in her eyes. "The kings of our past..." She then fell to her knees in a bow.

"Thatch, tell her to wrap it up," Rourke scoffed as he walked off, annoyed with what Kida was doing. "We got a schedule to keep."

"Kida... I'm sorry..." Milo told the Atlantean girl sadly.

Kida soon stood up next to him.

"This would be so amazing if we weren't trespassing." Atticus frowned from the sights of the underground.

"Hear, hear." nodded Lionel.

"Alright, Thatch, what's next?" asked Rourke.

"Okay, there's a giant crystal hovering 150 feet above our heads, over a bottomless pit of water," Milo replied. "Doesn't anything surprise you?"

Kida looked a bit emotional before her necklace began to float up.

"The only thing that surprises me is that thing's not on the truck yet, now move it!" Rourke sharply told Milo.

"Mahtim..." Kida muttered as she began to walk like a zombie.

"What did she say?" Cherry asked Atticus.

"Mahtim?" Atticus guessed.

"I don't know how to move it," Milo told Rourke. "I don't even know what's holding it up there."

"We should follow her," suggested Harvey. "Make sure she doesn't get hurt during her space-out."

The others nodded as they went to follow after Kida. Milo was about to go only for Rourke to stop him as they watched her.

"Talk to me, Thatch," Rourke demanded. "What's happening?"

"Look, all it says here is that the crystal is alive somehow," Milo replied, looking through the journal. "It... I don't know how to explain it. It's their deity. It's their power source."

"Speak English, Professor." Rourke replied.

"They're part of it," said Milo. "It's a part of them. I'm doing the best I can here!"

"Well, do better!" Rourke replied.

"Oh, I know!" Milo said sarcastically. "Why don't _you _translate, and _I'll_ wave the gun around?!"

Kida soon spoke in her native language. "All will be well, Milo Thatch and friends..." she soon said before facing him, looking a bit hypnotized. "Be not afraid..."

Milo and the others felt a bit calm from that.

"What did she say?" Rourke asked Milo then.

"I don't know... I... I didn't catch it." Milo lied.

"Yeah... That one went over our heads." Lionel agreed.

Rourke felt unsure about that, but said nothing of it. Kida soon began to walk onto the water like it was solid ground.

"I'd go with her and walk like that, but I think people think I'm enough of a Gary Stu." Atticus pouted slightly.

"Relax, man," Lionel replied. "We all know that's not true."

The ceiling object began to open up, projecting a bright blue light once it was under Kida, lifting her effortlessly into the air. Eventually, Kida was inside of the orb, being bathed in the glowing light.

"Ooh..." Mo's eyes sparkled a bit from the bright light.

"What do we do now?" Sabrina asked.

"Probably wait." Atticus guessed.


	7. Chapter 7

After a while, Kida was being brought back down onto the water. Milo went to go out for her only to be held back.

"Hold your horses, Lover Boy." Rourke smirked.

Kida floated back down, only now she was glowing with an ethereal blue light, which shone as she opened her eyes.

"Kida..." Milo said.

Kida approached as the large stones floating above crashed into the water with each step she took.

"I'm not sure if I like this." Cherry commented.

Rourke reached out to the girl as she seemed to glow brightly, looking like the same color as the water.

"No, don't," Milo stopped him. "Don't touch her."

Kida soon stepped inside the carrying chamber, which Audrey sealed shut shortly after. Milo shot her a death glare, but the young Latina just turned her head, unable to look him right in the eye. Kida turned her head up, and a thin layer of ice covered her window, obscuring her from sight.

"Sergeant, keep those people back." ordered Rourke to the troopers.

"You heard him. Step back." the sergeant told Milo and the others, pointing their guns at them. "I'm warning you."

Lionel snickered. "You think your guns can hurt most of us? Ah... That's cute." he remarked before going serious again.

"So... I guess this is how it ends, huh?" asked Atticus. "Fine. You win. You're wiping out an entire civilization, but, hey; you'll be rich."

"Congratulations, Audrey. Guess you and your dad will be able to open up that second garage after all." added Mo.

"And, Vinny, you can start a whole chain of flower shops." remarked Lionel.

"I'm sure your family's going to be very proud." finished Cherry, her tone oozing with sarcasm.

"But that's what it's all about, right? Money." added Milo.

"Get off your soapbox, kids," said Rourke. "You've read Darwin. It's called natural selection. We're just helping it along!"

Milo and the group merely looked disgusted and angered with Rourke's decisions.

"Commander, we're ready!" Helga soon called out.

"Yeah, give me a minute." Rourke told her.

The men soon let Drell and Hilda go, so Sabrina ran up to them emotionally, nearly crying. Harvey came behind Sabrina, patting her on the back a little to help comfort her as the two adults hugged her warmly.

"I know I'm forgetting something," Rourke pondered to himself. "I got the cargo, the crystal, the crew... Oh, yeah." he then punched Milo in the face, right away, knocking his glasses off his face.

"Milo!" The group gasped while the Atlanteans looked scared from that.

Milo grunted as he came to get up and Rourke stepped on his picture of him with his grandfather.

"Look at it this way, son," Rourke smiled darkly as Milo's mouth bled a bit as he caught his glasses after Rourke tossed them back to him. "You were the man who discovered Atlantis and now you're part of the exhibit."

Milo pulled the picture out of the destroyed frame and looked on his so-called friends, who couldn't help but feel guilty about their actions.

"Let's move, people." said Rourke.

"That was an order, not a suggestion. Let's go!" added Helga. Audrey sighed, then climbed out of the truck and went to the others, helping Milo to his feet. Then Vinnie, Cookie, and Mole joined her.

Mrs. Packard took a long puff on her cigarette. "We're all gonna die..." she remarked in a deadpan tone, but she joined them anyway.

Rourke smirked. "Oh, you can't be serious. This is wrong, and you know it. We're this close to our biggest payday ever, and you pick now of all times to grow a conscience?!" he asked.

"We've done a lot of things we're not proud of," retorted Vinnie. "Robbing graves, plundering tombs, double parking, but nobody got hurt. Well, maybe somebody got hurt, but nobody we knew."

"Well, if that's the way you want it, fine," Rourke replied as he went to go on without them. "More for me."

"Enjoy your greed, Pig!" Cherry glared.

Drell then made a squealing pig noise to add insult to injury.

"P.T. Barnum was right." Rourke mumbled to himself as he soon rode off with Helga.

Duncan and Atlanta squeezed their hands together as they sat in the water together while watching this.

"Bastard..." Lionel muttered.

Milo and the others turned and saw that the Atlanteans' crystal necklaces were fading.

"We can't let 'em do this!" Milo yelled, but Vinnie held him back.

"Wait a second." he said.

Just then, Rourke set off the detonator, activating the charges Vinnie had set and blowing the bridge to pieces.

"Okay. Now you can go." replied Vinnie.

"Guys?" asked Joshua. "You better get up here."

"How's King Kashekim?" Cherry asked in concern.

"Not good, I'm afraid," Joshua replied as he checked over Kashekim with his doctor education. "Internal bleeding. There's nothing more I can do."

"Oh, my." Atticus frowned.

"What a nightmare," Milo sulked. "And I brought it here."

"Ah, don't go beating yourself up," Joshua told him. "He's been after that crystal since Iceland."

Milo looked down to the Atlantean king before thinking of something. "The crystal. Sweet, that's it," he then said. "These... These crystals, they have some sort of healing energy. I've... I've seen it work."

"No." Kashekim said, grabbing his hand suddenly.

"King Kashekim?" Sabrina asked in concern.

"Where is my daughter?" Kashekim demanded.

"She...well, she..." Milo sighed.

"She has been chosen..." said Kashekim. "Like her mother...before her..."

"What...?" asked Mo.

"In times of danger, the crystal would choose a host..." explained Kashekim. "One of royal blood to protect itself...and its people..it will accept no other..."

"So you wouldn't have to be worried about being called a Gary Stu!" Lionel told Atticus. "Though, knowing those jerks, they'd look for any other excuse to call you that..."

"Oh... Thank you, Lionel!" Atticus sounded happy from that.

"I've known Atticus for a long time, and I can guarantee you he is not as perfect as a lot of people think he is." Cherry rolled her eyes a bit.

"I guess in a way though, I am a prince since I'm an Alicorn in Equestria." Atticus then said.

"I think he means Atlantean royalty," said Lionel. "So you're all good."

"The crystal thrives on the collective emotions of all who came before us..." Kashekim continued. "In return, it provides power, longevity, protection; as it grew, it developed a consciousness of its own." he coughed. "In my arrogance, I sought to use it as a weapon of war, but its power proved too great to control, it overwhelmed us, and led to our destruction..."

* * *

The old Atlantis was shown, even with a younger Drell there before he ran to get out of the way from the flooding.

* * *

"That's why you hid it beneath the city, to keep history from repeating itself." Milo realized.

"And to prevent Kida from suffering the same fate as my beloved wife." Kashekim replied, thinking back of when Kida's mother was taken from Kida when the girl was very young, tragically enough.

"What do you mean?" Cherry asked. "Wh-What's gonna happen to Kida?"

"If she remains bonded to the crystal, she could be lost to it forever," Kashekim replied. "The love of my daughter is all I have left. My burden would have become hers when the time was right, but now it falls to you. I also hope that this doesn't happen to you, Atticus."

"Me?" Atticus asked.

"Since you have an Atlantean bloodline yourself, you could also fall victim soon after Kida." Kashekim warned him.

Lionel clutched Atticus' hand, giving him a firm nod...and a hug. "Alright then...let's go save Kida." he replied.

"Let's go, buddy." Atticus smiled.

Kashekim soon held out his crystal necklace to Milo. "Return the crystal," he weakly told the young man before letting them go. "Save Atlantis. Save my daughter."

"We will." Cherry promised emotionally.

"And that's a promise!" Sabrina and Harvey added as they left.

Milo accepted the necklace before bowing his head. The Atlantean warriors bowed their heads as Atlanta and Duncan did the same for Kashekim.

"I'll make it up to you, King Kashekim," Atticus promised him before looking to his maternal grandparents. "All of Atlantis if I have to."

"Then let's rock...and RIDE!" Lionel announced as they ran off.

Milo seemed to stay put.

"Hey, Milo, you coming or what?" Cherry asked.

"Um... I... I'm not sure if I can do this." Milo replied.

"Hey, Kida is gonna need your help," Mo replied. "You at least owe her this."

"I followed you in, and I'll follow you out," Joshua soon told Milo. "It's your decision."

"Oh, _my _decision? Well, I think we've seen how effective _my _decisions have been," said Milo. "Let's recap: I lead a band of plundering vandals to the greatest archaeological find in recorded history, thus enabling the kidnap and/or murder of the royal family, not to mention personally delivering the most powerful force known to man into the hands of a mercenary nutcase who's probably gonna sell it to the KAISER! **HAVE I LEFT ANYTHING OUT?!**"

"Well, you _did_ set the camp on fire and drop us down that big hole." Joshua replied.

"Thank you," Milo then groaned in frustration from that. "Thank you very much."

"Oh, Milo..." Cherry frowned softly.

"Of course, it's been my experience; when you hit bottom, the only place left to go is up." Joshua suggested as he picked up the journal.

Milo sighed sharply. "Who told you that?" he then asked.

"A fella by the name of Thaddeus Thatch." Joshua smiled.

"Huh... That's kinda like what I said during the Lion King 1/2 adventure..." Lionel reflected. "Neat."

Milo glanced at the crystal in his hand, and his expression hardened. He soon set off out of the campsite.

"Where are you going?" asked Audrey.

"We're going after Rourke," said Milo.

"Milo, that's crazy!" Audrey replied.

"I didn't say it was the smart thing," retorted Milo. "But it's the right thing."

Audrey sighed. "C'mon... We better make sure he doesn't hurt himself." she told Vinnie.

* * *

The crew soon walked off as Milo and the adventure group got ready to go.

"Guys, what do you think you're doing?" Audrey asked as Milo and the group climbed up onto an Atlantean vehicle.

"Just follow our lead." Milo said, putting the crystal in place with his palm to start up the vehicle.

"Wow. I'm impressed." Mrs. Packard droned.

"It's simple," Milo told Audrey as she climbed aboard. "All you got to do-"

"Yeah, yeah, yeah," Audrey replied as she went to take control. "Shut up. We get it, okay?"

"No, no, wait-" said Cherry as the vehicle roared to life...and backed into a boulder. "...Gently."

"Hey, guys, you got somethin' sporty?" asked Vinnie. "Like a tuna?"

"How is this done?" asked one Atlantean.

"All you gotta do is use the crystals," said Milo. "Kida showed me." He ran over to another vehicle that looked like a hammerhead shark. "Half turn right, quarter turn left, keep your hand on the pad!"

The other Atlanteans tried it, and they caught on quickly.

"There ya go!" Atticus smiled to that.

"Saddle up, partners!" Cookie announced.

"I'm so excited." Mole gushed.

"Me too actually." Cherry had to admit.

Drell and Hilda soon came by.

"Oh! Hi..." Cherry said nervously.

"Mind if I drive?" Drell smirked.

"Um... Sure... What could happen?" Cherry grinned anxiously.

"Yeah, you two are getting one with extra padding," Lionel advised. "We don't need any flying auto accidents...also, Hilda's driving because Drell behind the wheel of a normal car is scary enough; but Drell behind the wheel of a flying vehicle? That's scary enough to keep me awake for six years."

"Hmm... Fair enough, I guess." Drell said.

Atticus, Cherry, and Mo all sighed a big sigh of relief.

"All right, let's hit the sky then! ...I think." Hilda replied.

"Alright, we're gonna save Atlantis," announced Milo. "We're gonna rescue the princess, or we'll die trying! Now let's DO IT!"

"Helmets on," Lionel advised, giving everyone helmets. "It's time to rock...and RIDE!"

* * *

And the team sped off to the rescue as the other Atlanteans waved to them. The other Atlanteans waved them off.

"Oh, I hope they can do it." Duncan said hopefully.

"Our future grandson is there with them," Atlanta smiled in comfort and support. "I know that they can do it. He's destined to do great and amazing things."

Duncan smiled back before hugging her.

* * *

"Ah, this feel nice!" Drell said as his hair flowed in the wind. "The wind in your hair! The bugs in your teeth! The thrilling and tingling feeling in the pit of your stomach!"

"You _really _want me to vomit, don't you?" asked Hilda loudly. "Because that's what's gonna happen if you keep talking about bugs in teeth and stomach pits!"

"Okay, here's the plan!" Milo called. "We'll come in low and fast and take them by surprise!"

"Well, I've got news for you, Milo," Audrey replied. "Rourke is never surprised, and he's got a lot of guns."

"Great," Milo rolled his eyes. "Well, do you have any suggestions?"

"Yeah," Vinny stated. "Don't get shot."

"That's a big 10:4 by me!" Cherry replied from that.

"There they are!" Atticus announced as they flew towards Rourke's site.

"We've got company!" Rourke told his soldiers. The soldiers began shooting, but the group was flying around their bullets and dodging with ease.

"Catch us if ya can, turkeys!" Lionel cackled as he bobbed and zipped around like a mosquito.

"That one is the most annoying of them all!" Rourke complained.

Planes soon flew around to shoot at the group.

"This might be a problem." Cherry said.

"Holy smokes!" Milo gasped before looking to Audrey. "You told us he only had guns."

"What I said was, he's never surprised." Audrey clarified.

Vinny soon moved his palm which made an energy blast surge out and blast one of Rourke's men before he smirked to himself. "Okay, now things are getting good."

"Vinnie! Heads up!" Atticus called. "Can't let them reach the top of that shaft!"

Vinny soon took off.

"Ugh!" Cherry groaned in her own vehicle as a plane chased her, firing bullets. "I hated planes like this in that one level of Crash Bandicoot Warped!"

"I haven't gotten to that level yet..." Lionel replied. "Gives off major 'Stop the Pigeon' vibes, though..."

"Is that an obscure video game I don't know about?" Cherry asked.

"No, it was a reference to Dastardly and Muttley in their Flying Machines," said Lionel. "The theme song was called Stop the Pigeon."

"Ohhh... Okay!" Cherry replied. "I know Wacky Races is kinda old school, but I'm just now getting into it. Cath's probably gonna chew me out now for not knowing any better..."

"Maybe," said Lionel with a shrug. "But whatever."

"Anyway... YOU'RE ALL GOING DOWN!** SAY 'ELLO TO MY LEETLE FRIEND!**" Cherry yelled out to the enemy planes, shooting energy blasts at them like a psycho.

The soldiers screamed and ran, and some of the planes were blasted apart or shot down.

"I think we might need a new plan soon!" Sabrina said as she tried to drive. "This seems a lot easier on a broomstick or a vacuum cleaner."

"Yeah...maybe a less nauseating one...!" Harvey added as his face turned green.

"Guys, new plan." Milo soon said.

"This should be interesting." Atticus replied.

"You, Vinny, Mo, and me, we're going to be decoys," Milo told him. "Lionel, Cherry, Audrey, Sweet, fly up underneath that thing, and cut her loose."

Lionel gave a salute. "Alrighty then, let's juice and cut it loose!" he replied as he sped off with the others.

They then took off to carry out Milo's new plan. There were many explosions in the air, none of them pleasant, but at least the good group was spared.

* * *

"Lieutenant!" Rourke called out.

Helga soon brought out her gun and began to shoot first and asked questions later.

Lionel took out a slingshot and fired it at Helga's gun, knocking it from her hands. "Whoops, clumsy me!" he snickered.

"You annoying little twerp!" Helga glared.

"I know _you _are, but what am _I_?!" Lionel retorted as he started blasting lasers from his fingers at her.

"What the-?!" Helga yelped before ducking down before she would get hit.

Audrey was seen sawing some chains. "I thought you said this thing could cut through a femur in 28 seconds!" she then complained to Joshua.

"Less talk, more saw!" Joshua told her.

"You guys want some help with that?" asked Atticus, pulling at the chain and weakening its hold.

"That'd be super!" Audrey replied.

"Don't worry 'bout it," Atticus smirked. "This'll be a snap for me." And he DID snap the chain, making the chamber drop.

Rourke began to shoot all around as Milo and the others flew all around.

"Take that!" Cherry called out as an energy shot past him then.

Vinny smiled innocently with a salute as he had fired that.

"Good shots, everybody!" Lionel congratulated.

"I still need to work on my pilot skills," Cherry said. "I didn't do so bad that time with Rocky and Bullwinkle though."

Tanks were soon thrown down from Helga to stop the others. Luckily, the group managed to burst some of the balloons on the dirigible.

"We're losing altitude!" said Rourke. "We need to lighten the load!"

Helga finished throwing the heavy stuff off. "That's the last of it, unless one of us wants to jump." she replied.

"Ladies first!" Rourke smirked as he grabbed Helga and tossed her out.

Helga cried out as she fell, but soon grabbed onto a bar to keep herself from falling any further and swung back in, kicking Rourke in the face on her way inside. "You said we were in this together!" she then glared, hitting his face with her foot rapidly. "You promised me a percentage!"

Rourke grabbed her foot that time before tossing her back out to fall again. "Next time, get it in writing." he then said.

Helga cried out as she began to fall again.

"Nothing personal." Rourke then smirked as she was done and out.

* * *

Just then, Milo swung down and kicked Rourke in the face as they began their fight.

"I gotta admit, you're a bigger pain in my neck than I thought," said Rourke. "It takes a lot to get under my skin...but congratulations, you just won the solid gold kewpie doll!"

Milo dangled a bit as he tried to come back up after Rourke kicked him down to make him fall to his death.

Helga groaned as she fell on the ground, but she was not dead, and soon took out a spare pistol before aiming it. "Nothing personal..." She then grunted a bit before shooting a flare up at the balloons.

"Look out!" Drell cried out.

Hilda soon saw that and swerved the other way to miss the explosion.

Rourke smashed open the "IN CASE OF FIRE" box and pulled out a large axe. "Getting tired, Mr. Thatch? Cuz I'm just getting warmed UP!" he exclaimed as he nearly caved Milo's head in.

Luckily he missed, but the axe shattered the window on Kida's chamber, and Milo took a shard. Rourke soon grabbed a hold of Milo, about to end him right then and there as he lifted the scrawny young man in the air. Milo then slit against Rourke's arm with the shard, making the bigger man yell out in pain, allowing Milo to climb up the chain. Rourke grabbed his arm as he began to turn more or less crystallized from the shard's magic. Rourke screamed as he was fully crystallized. Milo sighed in relief as it seemed like he was dead. Eventually, a hand came out as Rourke was shown not to be dead that time, startling Milo a bit.

"Yikes! Parental Guidance suggested!" Drell yelled out, covering his eyes as that seemed a bit scary to see.

Rourke lurched towards Milo, attempting to grab him, but then let out a screech as he exploded, causing Milo, Atticus and the chamber to drop to the ground.

"ATTICUS!" Cherry cried out for her best friend.

"I think he'll be fine." Hilda soothed a bit maternally.

Atticus and Milo grunted a bit from their fall.

"Can it _get_ any worse?" Atticus asked before looking up to see what looked like a fireball coming down at them. "Ugh! I had to ask!"

Milo grunted as he tried to move the chamber, so Atticus helped him before they tumbled out of the way with the chamber until the fireball crashed and landed. Milo and Atticus looked on at the burning wreckage, until the ground began to crack.

"Ze volcano... She AWAKES!" Mole exclaimed.

"That wasn't my fault." Vinnie stated.

"This ain't a good place to be." added Cookie.

"No, wait," Milo said to his new friends. "We got to get her back or the whole city will die."

"And if we don't get out of here, we'll die!" Audrey replied.

"It's the only way to reverse this!" Atticus told her.

"JUST DO IT!" Milo and Atticus then urged.

They quickly secured the chamber to the chains and took off shortly after. As they took off, the chain soon broke.

"Aw, great!" Atticus complained from that.

The vehicle they were on soon stopped.

"We gotta go back." Atticus said as he began to go down the chain link with Milo.

"Good grief, man..." Lionel sighed as they made their way down to hold onto the chain.

"Guys, are you insane?!" Sabrina cried out.

Atticus grabbed the chain hook and ran to wrap the chain around the chamber as the volcano began to erupt around them. "GO!" he then called out once it was ready. The chamber soon began to take off and Atticus rode on it.

"Yee-HAW!" Lionel shrieked as they rode through the caverns and back to Atlantis.

"Hi-Ho, Adventure Group, awaaay!" Cherry proclaimed.

* * *

Atticus yelped as he held on while looking around carefully from where he sat. The lava began to chase them out for a while before making it out as the lava flooded out onto the ground after them. Flares nearly shot at Atticus, but he was luckily doing fine so far. Fortunately, the team made it back unharmed and landed in the center of town. Milo took a spear and tried to pry open the chamber.

"Ze fissure it is about to eject its pyroclastic fury!" Mole soon cried out.

"Milo, Mole says the wall's going to blow!" Joshua warned the intelligent young man.

Milo then grunted, but luckily, he was able to get the chamber open. He and Atticus backed off as Kida began glowing once again, before she floated into the air and took the large rocks around her as they began to spin at a rapidly increasing speed. Atticus watched before his eyes seemed to glow a brighter blue.

"Atticus, don't!" Cherry cried out in panic.

Atticus's eyes were simply wide as he didn't respond yet as Kida worked some magic, making the floor glow a bit which made the whole kingdom glow the bright blue color.

"Aw, no, bro!" Lionel exclaimed, clinging to his leg. "You heard the king, right? Don't you dare go into the light!"

The glowing blue light shot from the floating rocks and into a stone structure...which soon emerged from the water, revealing that it was a gigantic stone warrior.

"Whoa..." Mo whispered in awestruck.

"Awesome." Sabrina added.

Mrs. Packard took a picture of this with a very old-fashioned camera out of amazement.

"Heh, she just predicted our generation," Cherry commented. "See something cool? Take a picture of it to post later."

The others, save Atticus, chuckled at that. As the lava flowed out, more stone guardians emerged from the watery depths to protect the city. They each clapped, forming parts of a barrier to shield the city from the lava flow.

"Man, Atticus, I really wish you could see this right now." Cherry commented in awestruck.

The lava soon flooded over, nearly engulfing them, but luckily, the barrier was able to protect them well enough. Eventually, a bright light shot out before the lava melted into a big ball of ash from the lava. A new light soon broke out, crumbling through the ash before water began to spray out from the rumbling remains. Milo glanced upwards as soon as it was over, and saw Kida floating back down to the ground. Atticus soon blinked as his eyes stopped glowing before he shook his head and came to.

"Oh, thank goodness." Cherry sighed in relief from that.

"Welcome back, space case." Lionel remarked with a smirk and a hug.

"What happened?" Atticus asked them. "I heard some singing in my head almost like a Siren."

"Must've been the same hypnotic trance that took Kida." Cherry guessed.

"Sounds trippy," replied Lionel. "But it's the only explanation that makes sense."

Milo soon caught Kida as she fell into his arms.

Kida soon began to wake up as she saw him. "Milo..."

The two then smiled to each other before Kida opened up one of her hands to see a bracelet in it. Kida looked emotional from that before hugging Milo very closely.

* * *

The group looked on as the Atlanteans were overjoyed to see their princess returned, and their civilization flourishing.

"It sure is beautiful." Sabrina commented.

Milo and Kida nodded before joining hands together.

"It was very nice to meet you, we have so many questions for the future..." Atlanta said to Atticus. "Like that nice boy Triton that Athena really likes. Tell me, will they grow old together like Duncan and I have?"

Atticus smiled emotionally a bit from his favorite aunt before answering. "Uncle Triton's gonna love her until the day he dies."

The others nodded in agreement as Atticus hugged his grandparents.

"Atlantis will honor your names forever," Kida said as she gave everyone their own crystal necklaces to wear with pride. "I only wish there was more we could do for you."

"Uh, you know, thanks anyway, but I think we're good." Vinny replied as he looked back as treasures were being loaded into their ride back home.

"They'll take you as far as the surface." Milo told him.

"Are you sure you want to stay here, Milo?" Cherry asked.

"Yes, I'm sure," Milo replied. "I'll be alright."

"Alright then," said Hilda. "Take care of yourselves."

"And keep us updated on your adventures!" said Drell.

"Will do, sir!" Milo replied.

"We are really going to miss you, Milo." Audrey smiled.

"You know, I'm going to reopen the flower shop and I'm going to think of you guys every single day," Vinny said as he came up to Milo. "Monday through Friday, from 9:00 to 5:00... Saturday until 2:00. Sunday... I'm going to take Sunday off probably, and... Maybe I'll go in for a couple of hours, you know, but August... I'm going to take August."

"Oh, boy." Atticus playfully rolled his eyes.

"Never change, Vinnie," Lionel chuckled. "And we'll probably visit for Thanksgiving."

"I ain't so good at speechifyin', but I wanted you to have this," Cookie said as he came up to Milo, taking out some sort of container. "It's the bacon grease from the whole trip."

"Anyone else think his voice sounds a little different?" Cherry commented.

"Sorta, but it's close enough to not be that noticeable," Lionel replied. "Thanks, Mr. Varney."

Cookie bawled and grumbled a bit as he walked off from Milo, looking clearly emotional.

Audrey leaned on Milo's shoulders before kissing his cheek and looked like she was gonna hit him and teased. "Ah! Two for flinching!"

Milo rubbed his cheek bashfully as she playfully punched his arm.

"See ya, Milo." Audrey smiled.

"Hey, Milo!" Mole laughed, coming out of the ground with fleas buzzing around him a bit.

"Hey! Mole... Mole. Wow," Milo chuckled sheepishly before patting the man on the head as he expected a goodbye hug. "Hey, well, goodbye, Mole."

Mole shrugged before he left, feeling a bit stiffed.

"So, Milo, you're gonna stay down here as a hero, huh?" Cherry asked as this was the last call.

"Ah, I don't think the world needs another hero," Milo replied. "Besides, I hear there's an opening down here for an expert in gibberish."

"You take good care of yourself, Milo Thatch." Joshua smiled.

"Yeah," Milo said, coming to shake his hand. "You, too, Sweet." But instead, he got a hug and a pat on the back as well.

"Ooh." The others winced as they heard some bones pop a bit.

"Sweet, uh, before you go, could you...?" Milo asked in a bit of discomfort.

"No problem." Joshua replied, straightening him out a bit before leaving.

"Ah. Oh. Thanks." Milo then smiled.

"Oh, you're getting a bill." Joshua smiled back playfully.

"Can we go home now?" Mrs. Packard groaned a bit.

"Come on, y'all," Joshua then suggested. "Let's get one last shot in front of the fish."

"And take two for Cherry's scrapbook." Atticus added.

"Oh, yeah!" Lionel exclaimed. "Photo Finish Time!"

Everyone then posed together to get into place.

"Say 'Gochk'!" The photographer told them.

"Gochk!" The others replied as two pictures were taken from the camera.

Cherry accepted the photo that showed just about everything to put in her adventure scrapbook while the crew took the other one that didn't reveal too much to share with the public after their expedition to the lost empire of Atlantis. And afterwards, the groups headed home.


	8. Chapter 8

"Well, this was nice, but let's get going." Hilda smiled.

"Yeah, hopefully Zelda survived babysitting Ambrose." Cherry commented.

"Here's hoping the house survived that." Lionel replied as they went home.

Drell and Hilda soon brought them over to the Spellman house.

* * *

Zelda peeked her head out with a pasta drainer on her head like a helmet as the house was nearly turned upside down and a huge mess.

"Zelly?! What happened?!" Hilda gasped.

"That child!" Zelda cried out, pointing to Ambrose with a ladle as she had him trapped in front of the TV underneath a laundry basket with a bunch of heavy books to hold him in as he seemed hypnotized by a Sesame Street marathon. "Baby witches and warlocks have occasional magical surges every now and then, but HE is QUITE the handful!"

Ambrose giggled at the televised scenes of Ernie and Bert having a disagreement, which is common among two roommates fresh out of college and both sharing the rent. Hilda and Zelda soon used that time to clean up the house with their magic.

"I think Uncle Quig would have a stroke if he saw this mess." Sabrina commented.

"I never really liked Quigley." Drell added.

"Did ANYBODY?" asked Lionel. "Good thing he moved out and went to live in that Irish castle a few years ago."

Eventually within moments, the house was squeaky clean.

"My little terror," Drell said before picking up Ambrose who giggled innocently. "I guess I should've known his magical surges would be more powerful since my magic's pretty strong with me being Head of the Council and all."

"The apple must not fall far from the tree..." Lionel replied as Drell carefully tossed Ambrose up and down.

Ambrose giggled a bit from the playing.

"He is kinda cute..." Cherry muttered a bit about Ambrose.

"Yeah, when his magic isn't going completely bonkers.." Zelda retorted, putting out a flame on one of her hair strands, which apparently burnt off most of it, leaving her with a punkish look.

"Gah! What in the-?!" Cherry gasped. "What have you done to your beautiful hair?"

"Long story..." Zelda groaned. "It'll take an even LONGER time to grow back, though."

"You make it sound like it's my fault." Drell replied as he played with his son on the floor a little.

"Well, not directly, but if the shoe fits..." Zelda replied.

Drell stuck his tongue out a bit as he kept playing with Ambrose who giggled from that. A note soon came out of the toaster and Zelda went to check it before opening it up and giggled like a shy school girl.

"What's it say?" asked Hilda curiously.

"Oh... It's nothing too special..." Zelda blushed a bit. "Just a little poem from Will."

"Ooh~" Hilda smirked to her sister.

"Will who?" Cherry asked.

"Oh, you know, that actor you and Sabrina met on the Halloween Mystery Train in The Other Realm." Zelda smiled bashfully.

"...Okay...?" Lionel blinked, looking confused.

Zelda giggled a bit.

"Who Zelda seems to have a cru-ush on~" Cherry then teased the adult witch.

"Ohhh... Zelda, you sly fox!" Lionel chuckled. "Way to GO! I knew you'd get somebody hooked on ya!"

"Now, now, we're just talking," Zelda blushed a bit. "We went out for some coffee the other week when I had to stop into the Netherworld Marketplace for some eye of newt. You'd think that ingredient would be in bigger supply since we witches use that ingredient for a lot of spells or concoctions."

"Sure, that's how it starts," Lionel replied. "But it'll probably grow from there~! And to think, you were going on about how guys notice Hilda, but not you. Talk about irony!"

"Yeah, I think Zelda's a bit prettier than Hilda." Cherry said.

"What?!" Drell asked.

"I'm just saying," Cherry shrugged sheepishly. "Don't get so territorial over your lover. That's what turns me off from going to visit that alternate dimension called Cartoon Network City."

"Ohhh..." Lionel replied. "You never _did _tell me about that. If you want, just give me the abridged version."

"Well, we had a little vote on where to go for a class trip one week," Atticus replied. "So we all put in a vote to put our names in a hat and whoever's name was picked got to pick where we went."

"Cath voted for Cartoon Network City," Cherry added. "So she won and we got to go there. She then meet the main group there called The Howling Wolves. We all split up to meet some members of the group or at least allies. Atticus went to the gym, I went to the library, Thor went to the park, Mo met a girl who called herself a moonchild, Cleo met Top Cat and his gang..." she then began to start off with. "Sounds like fun, right?"

"Kinda, yeah," Lionel replied. "But with a line like that, you just know crap's gonna hit the fan fast and hard."

"Well, Cath bonded really well with the Howling Wolves," Cherry then said. "I'm not surprised in the least. Then I found this library book that had the history of the city and I found out about a guy named Dr. X. Drell said he was far worse and more dangerous beyond our training, so we might have to go home. I told him that Cath wouldn't like that and he called her a bit of a spoilsport about stuff like that. I agreed with him, but she overheard that and ran away crying to them, so I came to apologize and everyone pretty much treated me like I was the bad guy. This girl who had Hulk powers wanted to smash me, some of them mentioned sending Sledgehammer O'Possum after me, they all just pretty much made me sound terrible."

Lionel winced visibly. "That sounds AWFUL!" he exclaimed, horrified.

"Yeah, that one jock girl kept threatening me, especially with having a demon uncle that was Trigon," Atticus sighed a bit. "After Uncle Sombra nearly killed Cherry on that one Equestrian vacation, my biggest fear right now is losing Cherry to evil. I called her lady friend, Justine I think? Pretty, and then that Jo person nearly attacked me for 'flirting with her'."

"Geez, what a hardass!" Lionel exclaimed. "Someone's got a hair-trigger temper!"

"Yeah, it's like if you disagreed with her, you were writing your own death warrant, at least that's what those other kids said." Cherry commented.

"I wasn't that bad with _my _jealousy, was I?" Drell asked Hilda. "I mean, I know I turned that one pirate you went out with into a goat for the rest of the dance you visited, but you promised _me _a date then."

"I know... I guess I was just remembering some bad times." Hilda pouted a bit.

"Yeah, compared to _that _broad, I wasn't as bad," Drell replied. "At least when I did it, it was kinda funny!"

"What else happened?" Lionel asked.

"Pretty much angry stares for me the following days for a while," Cherry said. "Cath crying to their leader that she just wants to make everyone proud and saying how she couldn't even make her friends or teacher happy. You know, pretty much making me and Drell looking like assholes."

"Wow... Major dick move." Lionel noted.

"Also that jock girl kept saying she'd haunt my nightmares," Cherry rolled her eyes a bit. "Never mind that I pretty much rule the Dream Realm these days as Luna's student."

"They also laughed at Cherry for being afraid of Uncle Sombra simply because he was a unicorn," Atticus added. "I then got them to shut up by yelling at them, which, ya know, brought out my dark crystals."

Lionel nodded in response.

* * *

"Those people made me feel like an idiot!" Thor pouted as he came in.

"Oh, Thor, come on in." Hilda said to her nephew by marriage.

"Do you even know what we're talking about?" Cherry asked.

"Yeah!" Thor replied. "That time in Cartoon Network City! I told those lava-bending twins that I knew what they could do 'cuz Uncle Drell runs the Witch's Council, and they tried to ignore me and acted like I was making stuff up and that Uncle Drell was a liar!"

Lionel hugged him. "I'm sorry you had to experience that."

"I mean, sure if you wanna protect your identity from people you know aren't special like that, sure you could lie about it, right?" Thor pouted.

"Yeah, besides if they were both mortals and you told them that, they would've turned into stone anyway," Drell replied. "I don't know why those people try to cover up their secrets like that when you know they're not who they appear to be."

"Yeah, when I meet someone I know is a magical being, I tell them I'm a witch openly," Sabrina shrugged. "I mean, unless they end up being allies with Tim the Witch Smeller."

"That makes sense to me," replied Lionel. "But those guys sound like utter jerks!"

"They all seemed pretty sharp when their leader told them what to do even though she was younger," Cherry shrugged. "I just don't know what to think of that place. I'm not sure if I wanna go back, I was happy for Cath though when her boyfriend met us there for a big dance at this night club they called Club Paradise though. Almost as if that was supposed to make up for the bad things that happened. I know I can be a bit of a jerk sometimes, but they just made me feel like a total dick."

"I'm sorry all of you had to go through that kinda torment." Lionel replied sadly.

"It seemed so cool at first until it got all over the top," Mo said. "Plus when we had to solve a mystery of what was going on, Cath just had to say 'Jinkies' like Velma."

"I guess that makes sense with how much she loves cartoons." Lionel shrugged from that at first.

"Yeah, but some idiot then said 'Jinkies? What is that? Some kind of breakfast cereal?'." Mo then added which made Cherry groan a bit.

"Yeah... That was Johnny Bravo from when he met the Scooby-Doo gang," Lionel replied. "But that time it was funny cuz Johnny didn't know what was going on."

"Yeah, then it was funny, but hearing it a lot down there really got under my skin." Cherry added.

"That's the thing with jokes: they're only funny if used sparingly," Lionel replied. "If you spam the same joke, it gets boring and predictable."

Cherry paused a moment before looking to the teenage warlock. "Hey, Thor, you thinking what I'm thinking?" she then asked.

"Uh... Why is it called a flea market when they don't really sell fleas?" Thor then asked in a stereotypical simpleton voice.

The others then waited for a moment.

"When are people gonna learn that I'm not dumb or oblivious?" Thor asked. "I think the only time I felt like this is when I was blinded by my crush on Cherry before I got over her."

Everyone murmured in agreement to that statement.

"Well, you don't have to go back if you don't want to." Drell replied.

"WHAT?!" Cherry yelped, running up to him. "Where was _this _option during those times Atticus and I had to go back to Jurassic Park?!"

_"That was_ beyond my control." Drell replied.

"Whoof..." Lionel winced.

"Knowing Cath though, she's gonna wanna go back sometime..." Cherry muttered. "Yeah, never mind the pain and abuse I endured, as long as you get to see your precious friends and boyfriend again."

"...I think I've heard plenty..." Lionel replied as he hugged Cherry and patted her gently on the back.

Cherry welcomed the hug, but didn't fully hug back yet.

"Maybe I'll give you guys a little vacation to make up for that time," Drell soon suggested as he kept playing with Ambrose. "Though knowing your lives, it'll still be an adventure regardless of the vacation."

"Alright," said Lionel. "Where are we gonna go?"

"Hmm... Where _can_ we go?" Atticus pondered.

* * *

And so the group all collectively pondered on that.

"Have fun with that," Drell said before carrying Ambrose up to his room. "I think someone needs a nap."

"No! Don't leave him alone!" Zelda panicked. "He might use magic to break out of his crib!"

"Well..." Lionel pondered. "I figure I might know somewhere."

"Yeah?" Cherry replied.

"Yep." Lionel said.

"Please tell me right now and not while leaving me as a blank slate..." Cherry groaned. "I hate it when people do that."

"Heh, sorry." Lionel replied.

"Okay, Lionel, what did you have in mind?" Atticus smiled.

"Well, I was thinking we could hang out at this place called Lakewood Plaza Turbo," explained Lionel. "Place is run by and populated with heroes, who regularly do battle with the evil Boxmore corporation, located directly across the street."

"Lakewood Plaza Turbo?" Atticus asked.

"You know it?" Lionel replied.

"I feel like I've heard of it, but I know I haven't been." Atticus said.

"Well, they're pretty cool from what I've heard," Lionel replied. "We could head over there, hang out, fight some bad guys, that sorta thing."

"Hang out and fight bad guys," Atticus chuckled. "Like the real Teen Titans than the ones they show on TV nowadays that my little cousin Dot watches sometimes."

"My sentiments exactly," Lionel replied. "So is that a yes on L.P.T.?"

"Sure thing," Atticus smiled. "I can't guarantee we'll be relaxing all the time, but it'll be something."

"I guess a change of scenery would be good." Cherry added.

"I just hope the people there are nice." Mo smiled.

"Ooh... Can I go?" Thor pouted at first to Lionel. "I mean... You and me are like brothers."

Lionel smiled. "Hey, it wouldn't be as fun if YOU weren't there. So yeah." he replied.

Thor beamed from that as he brought his friends into a group bear hug.

"Aw... Love you too, big guy." Lionel smiled.

Thor smiled back to them.

"Ah, Thor, you were always so affectionate," Drell chuckled to his nephew. "Not sure who you got that from. Hm... I think I have an old colleague in this Lakewood Plaza place. I might have to look into that for you before you get going."

"If you say so," replied Atticus. "Couldn't hurt."

"Hopefully it goes smoothly," Drell said. "Again, sorry about that Cartoon Network City experience. I guess I should've expected that to happen."

"Hey, water under the bridge," replied Lionel. "Best we can do is learn from the bad and ensure that it doesn't happen again!"

"I think I know that too well." Drell smirked as he came up behind Hilda, clasping his arms over her waist.

"Ooh!" Hilda blushed from that.

"I don't want any more little cousins right now!" Sabrina gasped from that.

"No promises." Drell replied with a smirk.

Sabrina shuddered a bit while Hilda giggled.

"Keep it to yourself until the kids leave." Hilda told her husband bashfully.

"Fine, fine." Drell shrugged as he and Hilda went upstairs.

Sabrina wiped her forehead a bit, though she didn't mind having a new uncle as it wasn't as bad as she thought it would be.

"Hmm... I guess I could check out that Plaza place... I'm rather curious..." Cherry had to admit. "Hopefully nothing's boring or samey."

"Don't worry, at Lakewood Plaza, nothing could be considered boring," replied Lionel. "Especially since most of the patrons have chi powers!"

"Chi powers?" Atticus smiled out of intrigue.

"That's what you do with Goku, right?" Thor asked him.

"Something like that, but mostly with Ki." Atticus nodded.

"Yep," Lionel replied. "One of the people who works there is this former superhero called Silver Spark, but she just goes by Carol nowadays. She runs a gym there while her son K.O. works at the local bodega."

"Silver Spark... I think I've heard of that name too from my dad's old comic book collection." Cherry remarked.

"Either way, it's supposed to be a pretty fun and zany place." said Lionel. "I say we go for it!"

"All right, let's check this out, until next time!" Cherry then said.

The End


End file.
